INFORMS Case Competition

2025 First Place

José Antonio Carbajal, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
Natalia Summerville, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Winning material: Routing for Social Good: Optimizing Human Milk Bank Logistics

Purpose of the Award

The annual case competition is intended to encourage the creation, dissemination, and classroom use of novel teaching cases in operations research, management science and analytics. While the Case Competition Award Committee desires to promote creation of new and innovative cases, it recognizes that the dissemination of such cases cannot always wait for the timing of this award, and thus recognizes novel submissions for this award as those that have been first published within 12 months of the competition award deadline.

2026 Submission Deadline: July 31, 2026

Committee Chair

Cecilia Zenteno
Massachusetts General Hospital

Email: [email protected]

Click to view full committee

Application Process

All submitted cases must be previously unpublished at the time of submission, or have first been published within 12 months of the original published submission deadline. If the case contains material drafted originally by individuals or groups other than the author(s) submitting the case, then the intellectual history and ownership of these portions must be disclosed clearly to the Case Competition Award Committee upon submission of the case. Contestants are responsible for assuring that this guideline is strictly met.

The recipient of First Prize shall receive $500 and a framed certificate; there may be up a runner-up who shall receive $300 and certificate.

All materials must be submitted to the committee via the INFORMS award software. Packages will be reviewed by a panel of judges familiar with the case method. The judges will select up to four finalists and the Chair will notify all contestants of the judges' decisions by the end of summer 2026.

Finalists must present their cases at the INFORMS Annual Meeting to be eligible to win. Click here for instructions »

Committee

2026 Committee Chair

Email: [email protected]

Click here for committee information.

Past Awardees

2025

First Place

José Antonio Carbajal, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

Natalia Summerville, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Runner-Up

Yifan Shen, University of Washington

Chiwei Yan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Julia Yan, University of British Columbia

Finalist

Angela Lin, Rice University

Dessislava Pachamanova, Babson College

Georgia Perakis, MIT/ Sloan School of Management

2016

First Place

Fredrik Odegaard, The University of Western Ontario

Second Place

David Kopcso, Babson College

Third Place

Yang Bo, Naveen Jindal School of Management, The University of Texas at Dallas

Milind Dawande, University of Texas at Dallas

Tim Huh, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia

Ganesh Janakiraman

Mahesh Nagarajan, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia

Vincent Slaugh, Carnegie Mellon University

Sridhar Tayur, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business

2010

First Place

Feryal Erhun , Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

Yenho Thomas Chung , Stanford University

Timothy Kraft, Stanford University

Second Place

Kenneth C. Lichtendahl Jr. , Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

Third Place

Matthew J. Drake, Duquesne University, School of Business

Özlem Ergun, Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Industrial/Systems Engineering

Gonca Karakus, Georgia Institute of Technology

Paul Kerl, Georgia Institute of Technology

Pinar Keskinocak, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial/Systems Engineering

Julie L. Swann, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial & Systems Engineering

Monica Villarreal, Georgia Institute of Technology

Runner-Up

Yun Shin Lee, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

Stefan Scholtes, University of Cambridge, Judge Business School

2009

First Place

Amr Farahat, Cornell University

Susan Martonosi, Harvey Mudd College, Department of Mathematics

Second Place

Özlem Ergun, Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Industrial/Systems Engineering

Pinar Keskinocak, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial/Systems Engineering

Jessica Heier Stamm, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial & Systems Engineering

Julie L. Swann, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial & Systems Engineering

Third Place

Peter C. Bell, University of Western Ontario, Richard Ivey School of Business

Gregory S. Zaric, University of Western Ontario, Richard Ivey School of Business

2007

First Place

Murat Köksalan, Middle East Technical University

Haldun Süral, Middle East Technical University

Selin Bilgin Özpeynirci, Middle East Technical University

Finalist

Nicos Savva , London Business School

Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

Harish Krishnan, University of British Columbia, Sauder School of Business

Bert De Reyck, University College London, Dept. of Management Science & Innovation

Stefan Scholtes, University of Cambridge, Judge Business School

2006

First Place

Sakine Batun, University of Pittsburgh, Dept. of Industrial Engineering

Pascale Crama, Singapore Management University

Zeger Degraeve, London Business School

Murat Köksalan, Middle East Technical University

Bert De Reyck, University College London, Dept. of Management Science & Innovation

Finalist

James J. Cochran, The University of Alabama

Matthew J. Drake, Duquesne University, School of Business

Paul M. Griffin, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of ISYE

Julie L. Swann, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial & Systems Engineering

2005

First Place

Stephen C. Graves, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dmitry Krass, University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management

Anton Ovchinnikov, Queen's University

John C.W. Parsons, Parsons, McKinsey & Company

Scott Sampson, Brigham Young University

Finalist

Nicos Savva , London Business School

Tianjun Feng, The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California - Irvine

L. Robin Keller, University of California - Irvine, Paul Merage School of Business

Stefan Scholtes, University of Cambridge, Judge Business School

Xiaona Zheng, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University

2004

First Place

Pascale Crama, Singapore Management University

Zeger Degraeve, London Business School

Bert De Reyck, University College London, Dept. of Management Science & Innovation

Finalist

Matthew J. Drake, Duquesne University, School of Business

Ricardo Ernst, Georgetown University

Paul M. Griffin, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of ISYE

Jan A. Van Mieghem, Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management

Glen M. Schmidt, University of Utah

Julie L. Swann, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial & Systems Engineering

2003

First Place

Martin L. Puterman, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Communications & Business Administration

Stanley Tse, Visual8 Corporation

Finalist

Robert C. Carlson, Stanford University, Management Science & Engineering Department

Russ G. Garber, Stanford University

Christopher M. Keller, East Carolina University, Dept. of Marketing & Supply Chain

John F. Kros, East Carolina University, Dept. of Marketing & Supply Chain

2002

First Place

Murat Köksalan, Middle East Technical University

F. Sibel Salman, Koc University, College of Engineering

Finalist

Mehmet A. Begen, University of Western Ontario
Richard Ivey School of Business

Wedad Elmaghraby, University of Maryland, RH Smith School of Business

David Glenn, Profit Logic

Christopher M. Keller, East Carolina University, Dept. of Marketing & Supply Chain

Pinar Keskinocak, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial/Systems Engineering

John F. Kros, East Carolina University, Dept. of Marketing & Supply Chain

Stephanie Leung, Cua-Oh Consulting

Martin L. Puterman, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Communications & Business Administration

Alexander M. Smith, University of British Columbia

2001

First Place

Don Kleinmuntz, Strata Decision Technology LLC

Finalist

Christopher M. Keller, East Carolina University, Dept. of Marketing & Supply Chain

Woo-Je Kim, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Dept. of I/O Engineering

John F. Kros, East Carolina University, Dept. of Marketing & Supply Chain

Katta G. Murty, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Dept. of I/O Engineering

Christopher M. Rump, Bowling Green State University

2000

First Place

Pinar Keskinocak, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial/Systems Engineering

Sridhar Tayur, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business

Finalist

Christopher M. Keller, East Carolina University, Dept. of Marketing & Supply Chain

John F. Kros, East Carolina University, Dept. of Marketing & Supply Chain

Robert McGowan, University of Western Ontario, Richard Ivey School of Business

Christopher M. Rump, Bowling Green State University

Gregory S. Zaric, University of Western Ontario, Richard Ivey School of Business

INFORMS Case Competition

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2025 First Place

Purpose of the Award

2026 Submission Deadline: July 31, 2026

Committee Chair

Application Process

Committee

Past Awardees