The following articles provide information on the wide variety of careers in O.R./Analytics as described firsthand from the people working in these fields.
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Mary Crissey,
Civilian Workforce Analyst, Major – US Air Force- "Today we are forging innovative ways to deliver and transform data into valuable information from which Air Force managers around the world can benefit."
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Mark Reynolds,
Director, Business Optimization, Level 3 Communications- "Level 3 has many challenges to realize its goals and operations research will be a central building block to doing that"
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Jeff Linderoth,
Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Argonne National Laboratory, Mathematics and Computer Science Division- "Traditional computing paradigms are changing...optimization algorithms must be ready to adapt to these changes. We are exploring ways to solve large optimization problems on metacomputing platforms."
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Deep Parekh,
Manager, Consulting Services, Ernst & Young LLP- "The base of knowledge that you can gain via consulting is extremely wide, and gives you the opportunity to go as deep as you want to go in any vertical."
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Brenda Dietrich,
Senior Research Manager, Optimization Center, IBM- "Companies appreciate the business value of optimization and are investing in applications and end users are becoming more computer literate and easier to satisfy"
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Ladislav Lettovsky,
Senior Consultant, Sabre Research Group- "What I like most about the Sabre Research Group is that we have real experts from many different fields and it is very easy to bring a team together to work on any of our problems."
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Cynthia Barnhart,
Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT and Co-Director, Operations Research Center, MIT- "To me, operations research is fun because it involves creativity -- there isn't necessarily a single, cookie-cutter approach especially when trying to model large, complex systems like those in transportation."
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Harlan Crowder,
Optimization Consulting Manager, ILOG, Inc.- "If you look at who is successful in our discipline, you usually find a common thread: They have learned how to do one thing and they have learned how to do it very well."
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Mike Grant,
Manager of Industrial Engineering, Southwest Research Institute- "Much of my focus has been on using modeling and simulation techniques to include the statistical aspects of model development, validation, and implementation."
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Steven Gould,
Lead Consultant, CGI-
"I tend to get involved in all aspects of software development, whether or not O.R. is involved. I particularly enjoy O.R. applications because of the extra value we can deliver to the customer."
→ Steven Gould, Answers Reader eMails
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"I tend to get involved in all aspects of software development, whether or not O.R. is involved. I particularly enjoy O.R. applications because of the extra value we can deliver to the customer."
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Leslie-Ann Asmus,
Supply Chain Product Manager, Chesapeake Supply Chain Division, Aspen Technology, Inc.- "My title of Supply Chain Project Manager translates to being involved in everything from pre-sales technical support to industry template development to project management and support."
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Majors Jeffrey Huisingh and Randy Zimmerman,
Co-directors, Federal Travel Reinvention Laboratory- "As technology evolves, OR tools may change, but the fundamental need and use for O.R. in the military will remain steadfast." (JH). " I feel that the ability to understand and model a process is the most important skill that an OR/MS practitioner needs." (RZ).
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Douglas Gray,
Vice President, Technical Sales and Marketing, ECWerks, Inc.- "What I enjoy most about my career in OR/MS is that I work at the intersection of challenging, real-world business problems, bright people with great ideas, powerful mathematical concepts and leading edge technology—and get paid pretty well for it!"