INFORMS needs your help spreading the word about OR/MS. As members of the field, we often encounter OR/MS undergraduates, but there are many talented math and computer science students who have never heard of our field.

Many of us had a single course, lecture or chance encounter that led us to study OR/MS in graduate school. For Dawn, it was a brochure a school sent her in addition to the graduate math program information she had requested. For Donna, it was one operations research elective class and one discrete math class — along with a wise math professor who advised that she really wasn't cut out for a life of theoretical mathematics. If not for these kinds of occurrences, most of us would have different professions today.

It doesn't take a probabilist to figure out that creating more of these situations could impact the field immensely. A simple guest lecture at a school where OR/MS isn't offered could introduce students to a new and exciting career choice. This is where we need your help.

We are looking for OR/MS professionals to give presentations at schools near their home institutions. We have created a PowerPoint presentation for you to use if you would like — you can even tailor it to your own research interests. This may also serve as a nice recruiting tool for your own department. After all, not all great students go to major universities where fields like OR/MS are presented; many of the brightest young minds choose to attend smaller schools — ones with great math and/or computer science departments but no operations research or management science courses.

If you are interested in reaching out to these students and introducing them to OR/MS, please contact us and let us know. We will provide you with the PowerPoint presentation, and we will even do the legwork — we will contact the schools near where you work and help to make the arrangements for your visit. This is a great way to serve both your home institution and the entire OR/MS community!

To reach us, send an e-mail to either Dawn Strickland (stricklandd@winthrop.edu) or Donna Llewellyn (donna.llewellyn@gatech.edu).






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