2024 Winner(s)
- Jim Dai,
Cornell University
The 2024 INFORMS John von Neumann Theory Prize is awarded to Jim Dai for his fundamental and sustained contributions to stochastic systems theory, most prominently for his seminal work on stochastic network stability and heavy traffic diffusion approximations.
Dai’s most important contribution is his 1995 paper that relates the stability of fluid models to the positive recurrence of Markov processes. Although heuristic fluid models, in conjunction with Foster’s criterion, had been used before to establish stability for some models involving countable Markov chains, Dai’s seminal contribution was to develop a general, direct, and rigorous connection between the stability of fluid models and the positive recurrence of general state-space Markov processes, such as those that describe queueing networks. More concretely, he showed that stability of a deterministic fluid model implies stability of the stochastic process model, in a very general setting. Since then, Dai’s approach has become a centerpiece in the field of stochastic networks and the foundation for a wide array of subsequent results by Dai and others.
Beyond fluid analysis, Dai has made major contributions to the broader field of stochastic networks, such as developing heavy traffic diffusion approximations for certain models (e.g., multiclass service stations with Markovian feedback), producing a famous counterexample (in collaboration with Wang) about the (non)existence of diffusion approximations, developing new results and insights on reflected Brownian motion models, introducing a new approach for obtaining quantitative bounds for diffusion approximations based on Stein’s method, generalizing the scope and asymptotic optimality of max-weight scheduling, and many others.
Dai’s work is motivated by models that arise in manufacturing and networking, which he connects to paradigmatic mathematical problems. His work is distinguished by intellectual taste, mathematical depth, and profound originality. In addition, he has been a leading educator and mentor with a very strong record of service to the profession.
Purpose of the Award
Committee Chair
Adrian Lewis
Cornell University
Have questions? Please email: [email protected]
The John von Neumann Theory Prize is awarded annually to a scholar (or scholars in the case of joint work) who has made fundamental, sustained contributions to theory in operations research and the management sciences. The award is given each year at the INFORMS Annual Meeting if there is a suitable recipient. Although the Prize is normally given to a single individual, in the case of accumulated joint work, the recipients can be multiple individuals.
The Prize is awarded for a body of work, typically published over a period of several years. Although recent work should not be excluded, the Prize typically reflects contributions that have stood the test of time. The criteria for the Prize are broad, and include significance, innovation, depth, and scientific excellence.
The award is $5,000, a medallion and a citation.
2025 Submission Deadline: June 1, 2025
The Prize Committee is currently seeking nominations, which should be in the form of a letter (preferably email) addressed to the prize committee chair (below), highlighting the nominee's accomplishments. Although the letter need not contain a detailed account of the nominee's research, it should document the overall nature of his or her contributions and their impact on the profession, with particular emphasis on the prize's criteria. The nominee's curriculum vitae, while not mandatory, would be helpful.
About the Award/Namesake
John von Neumann was a brilliant mathematician, synthesizer, and promoter of the stored program concept, whose logical design of the IAS became the prototype of most of its successors - the von Neumann Architecture. von Neumann was invited to visit Princeton University in 1930, and when the Institute for Advanced Studies was founded there in 1933, he was appointed to be one of the original six Professors of Mathematics, a position which he retained for the remainder of his life. Postwar von Neumann concentrated on the development of the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) computer and its copies around the world. His work with the Los Alamos group continued and he continued to develop the synergism between computers capabilities and the needs for computational solutions to nuclear problems related to the hydrogen bomb.