Saul Gass Expository Writing Award
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2018 Awardee(s)
- Richard Cottle, Stanford University, Management Science & Engineering
Professor Cottle has made fundamental contributions to mathematical programming, particularly to quadratic programming and the linear complementarity problem. His text The Linear Complementarity Problem (coauthored with two of his students, Jong-Shi Pang and Richard E. Stone) won the Lanchester Prize in 1994, and his text Linear and Non-Linear Optimization (coauthored with Mukund Thapa) was recently published to very positive reviews.
The Saul Gass Expository Writing Award, though, is not an award for writing important texts, but for quality exposition across a broad spectrum of publications. Here Professor Cottle excels. Whether it is very technical material, as in his 1974 paper Manifestations of the Schur Complement, his above cited texts, a book review for Interfaces, or an article on the pre-history of linear programming, the clarity of his exposition enhances the reading and learning experience. For over five decades and in dozens of publications, Professor Cottle’s writing has enlightened students and scholars alike.
As the letter nominating Professor Cottle opines: “I have to tip my hat to Dick. He is a real master of exposition. Such clarity! Such scholarship! Such elegance! It is a real pleasure and privilege to give Dick my strongest recommendation for a Saul Gass Expository Writing Award.” The committee wholeheartedly agrees.
Purpose of the Award
2018 Committee Chair
2019 Chair
Stephen Boyd
Stanford University
boyd@stanford.edu
This award recognizes an author whose publications in operations research and management science have set an exemplary standard of exposition. The awardee's written work, published over a period of at least ten years, should indicate (in terms of breadth of readership) an influence and accessibility enhanced by expository excellence. Criteria include the lucidity, conciseness, logic and interest of the writing at all levels, from the general organization to the details. The author must have affected, through these publications, how something is done, studied, taught, or thought about by some group within the OR/MS community.
The written work can contain any combination of practical, theoretical and pedagogical subject matter, and may be original, synthetic or historical. The corpus as a whole must be substantial in content, not necessarily prize-worthy in itself, but not trivial.
Enough of the publications in question must have been singly authored to demonstrate the awardee’s expository skill. A team of authors writing together consistently over many years may also be considered for the award.
The winner will receive $2,000 and a framed certificate that includes a brief citation at the INFORMS Annual Meeting.
Application Process
Entries due July 1, 2019
About the Award/Namesake
Saul Gass was the 25th President of ORSA.
Dr. Gass first served as a mathematician for the Aberdeen Bombing Mission, U. S. Air Force, and then transferred to Air Force Headquarters where he began his career in operations research with the Directorate of Management Analysis, the organization in which linear programming was first developed. For IBM, he was an Applied Science Representative, Manager of the Project Mercury Man-in-Space Program, and Manager of IBM's Federal Civil Programs. He was a member of the Science and Technology Task Force of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement. He was Director of Operations Research for CEIR, Senior Vice-President of World Systems Laboratories, and Vice-President of Mathematica. He served as a consultant to the U. S. General Accounting Office, Congressional Budget Office, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and other operations research and systems analysis organizations.
Past Awardees
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