Operations Research / Management Science Fall 2008 Speaker Series Announced
Tue., Aug 12, 2008
The UMass Amherst INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) Speaker Series lineup for Fall 2008 is now available.
The talks take place on scheduled Fridays at the Isenberg School of Management in Room 112 from 11:00AM-12:00PM (except where noted), and are open to the public.
The series is organized by the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter. This is the ninth semester of this Speaker Series, which is multidisciplinary in nature.
The schedule for Fall 2008:
Professor Daron Acemoglu, the Charles P. Kindleberger Professor of Applied Economics at MIT, will open the series on September 19, 2008. He will speak on "Bayesian Learning on Social Networks." Professor Acemoglu is the 2005 John Bates Clark Medal recipient from the American Economic Association and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His talk is joint with the Finance Seminar Series at the Isenberg School.
Dr. Grace Lin, will deliver her talk, "Enterprise of the Future," on October 3. Dr. Lin is the CTO & Director, Innovation and Emerging Solutions -- Supply Chain Management, at IBM Global Business Services, Yorktown Heights. She was the leader of the IBM team that received the 1999 INFORMS Franz Edelman Award for its role in reengineering efforts that resulted in over $750 million in savings for IBM the year prior. She is an INFORMS Fellow. Her research has been recognized in Forbes and China News.
Professor Ahmed Ghoniem of the Department of Finance and Operations Management at the Isenberg School will deliver his talk, "Joint Vehicle Assembly-Routing Problems: An Integrated Modeling and Optimization Approach" on October 24. Professor Ghoniem has degrees from Virginia Tech and the Ecole des Mines de Nantes in France. He is also a new faculty member in ISOM. Professor Ghoniem has conducted projects with Volvo Logistics North America and with Harley-Davidson.
Professor Senay Solak of the Department of Finance and Operations Management at the Isenberg School will speak on "Air Traffic Flow Management in the Presence of Uncertainty," on November 7. Professor Solak holds degrees from the US Naval Academy and Georgia Tech and just joined the faculty of the Isenberg School. He served for seven years as a naval officer and also worked as an analyst in the Planning Department of the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.
Mr. Tom Vanderbilt of New York City will speak on November 14. He writes about design, technology, science, and culture for Wired, Slate, The New York Times, and other publications. His most recent book Traffic -- Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About Us) was reviewed in The New York Times Book Review on August 10, 2008 and has been the subject of extensive media coverage.
Professor Kevin Fu, Department of Computer Science, UMass Amherst, will conclude the Fall 2008 INFORMS Speaker Series on December 5, with his talk, "Implantable Medical Devices: Security and Privacy for Pervasive, Wireless Healthcare." Professor Fu is the Co-Director of the Medical Device Security Center and the Director of the RFID Consortium on Security and Privacy. His work has been featured in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. His talk will take place in Room 128 in the Isenberg School.
Those interested in attending can click here for more information.
After each presentation, interested guests are welcome to join the speaker for additional conversation at lunch at the University Club at UMass Amherst.
Support for this series is provided by the Isenberg School, the Department of Finance and Operations Management, and the John F. Smith Memorial Fund.
For questions, please contact Professor Anna Nagurney by e-mail nagurney@gbfin.umass.edu or telephone (413) 545 5635.
Please also visit the INFORMS chapter's website for lists of past speakers and other chapter activities.