The INFORMS Annual Meeting 2003 Atlanta will be held Oct. 19-22 with a full program and an abundance of opportunities to network, learn and exchange ideas with other OR/MS professionals. The Atlanta meeting promises to be one of the largest INFORMS meetings yet, with at least 45 tracks of technical sessions, a variety of tutorials and plenaries. Ed Kaplan of Yale University will explore the conference theme, "OR/MS in the Community," in a plenary session. Other speakers will address the theme in special clusters including "OR in the Arts," "OR in Community Programs" and several tracks related to public health issues.

Following through on this conference theme, there will be organized opportunities to perform community service in Atlanta on the Saturday before the meeting through a Georgia Tech program called Team Buzz. Also, there will be a special INFORMS team for the annual Atlanta AIDS Walk on Sunday, Oct. 19. Visit the conference Web site (www.informs.org/Conf/Atlanta2003) for more details.

Networking opportunities include a Sunday evening reception in the exhibit hall, and the Monday evening reception at the World of Coke and the Georgia Freight Depot. There will be logistics and manufacturing plant tours, including one to the Delta Air Lines International Air Cargo Facility. Guest sightseeing tours include visits to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial as well as to CNN and the Carter Center.

This year, the entire meeting will be held under one roof. Technical sessions will be in the Westin Peachtree Plaza, and the exhibit hall will be located in the adjoining Atlanta's Mart. This complex is set in downtown Atlanta, convenient to MARTA (Atlanta's rapid transit system) and a host of restaurants and the bustling city life.

Program highlights include more than 90 sessions focusing on optimization, another 80 in the operations management and supply chain area, and more than 30 sessions related to quality and statistics. Other key topics include data mining, e-business, semiconductor manufacturing, education, auctions and air traffic management. Every INFORMS society and most sections are sponsoring sessions offering the most current research and applications.

The first version of the preliminary program can be found on the meeting Web site. Periodic updates will follow as new sessions and papers are received and scheduled. Judith Liebman of University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana will deliver the Omega Rho Distinguished Lecture, and Jan Karel Lenstra of Georgia Tech will present the IFORS Distinguished Lecture. Additional keynote presentations will be made by Tom Weidermeyer, chief operating officer of UPS; Daniel Pantaleo, vice president of University Alliances at SAP; and a set of members of the INFORMS Board of Directors. There will be a special session honoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of Philip Morse.

More than 15 tutorials will address operations management, human resources management, networks, radiation therapy, applied probability and the INFORMS editorial and technical process for authors.

Students will find great value in many events at the meeting. The Job Placement Service and Job Fair afford opportunities for interviews with top corporations and universities. The Combined Colloquia, held Oct. 17-18, is comprised of two distinct tracks (academic and industry). The tracks aim to prepare doctoral students for faculty roles or industry positions by acquainting them with issues they will encounter in both arenas. The Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium is targeted toward faculty and doctoral students who are interested in current trends in teaching in OR/MS. This year, once again, the Combined Colloquia will participate in joint activities and sessions with Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium. For information on this program, go to www.isye.gatech.edu/informs-colloquium.

The 8th INFORMS Conference on Information Systems and Technology will hold a "meeting within a meeting" on Oct. 18-19, organized in cooperation with the INFORMS College on Artificial Intelligence and INFORMS Computing Society. For more information, go to www.bus.emory.edu/CIST03.

The INFORMS Annual Meeting 2003 Atlanta presents sessions and events that are not to be missed! For the latest updates, go to www.informs.org/Conf/Atlanta2003.

Paul Griffin is the program chair and Donna Llewellyn is the general chair of the INFORMS Annual Meeting 2003 Atlanta.





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