April 1998 Practitioner's Page: CPMS News Edelman Competition Representing applications from process control, portfolio analysis, forecasting, logistics and decision support planning, seven finalists will vie for the 1998 Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Operations Research and the Management Sciences. Finalist presentations will be given on April 26 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, during the national INFORMS meeting in Montreal, Canada. Those interested in the practice of OR/MS are encouraged to attend the day-long presentation session. The cost is $95 and includes lunch and a post-presentation luncheon on April 28. This is the 27th year the prestigious $15,000 Franz Edelman international competition has been held. The award is jointly sponsored by INFORMS and CPMS, the Practice Section of INFORMS. The Edelman Award recognizes outstanding implemented work that has had a significant positive impact on the performance of the client organization. The top finalist receives a $10,000 first prize. Stephen Strauss, chair of the 1998 competition, announced the following finalists: Bosques Arauco S.A.: "Use of OR Systems in the Chilean Forest Industries," by Andres Weintraub, Rafael Epstein and Ramiro Morales. Cerestar: "Robust Process Control at Cerestar's Refineries," by Kumar Rajaram, R. Jaikumar, Franz Behlau, Frans Van Esch, Corrie Heynen, Albert Kutner, Izzak Van De Wege and Ralph Kaiser. Grantham, Mayo, van Otterloo & Co., LLC: "Portfolio Construction through Mixed Integer Programming," by Dimitris Bertsimas, Christopher Darnell and Robert Soucy. Johnston County (NC) Public Schools: "Integrated Planning for School and Community," by Raymond G. Taylor, Michael L. Vasu and James Causby. Maritrans, Inc.: "Forecasting the Market for Jones Act Tankers," by Murthy Mudrageda, Frederic Murphy and Steven Welch. Pacific Lumber Company: "Long-Term Forest Ecosystem Planning at Pacific Lumber," by L. Russell Fletcher, Henry Alden, Dean P. Angelides, Scott P. Holmen and Matthew J. Etzenhouser. Sears:"Dispatching a Nationwide Technician Workforce Under Time Distance & Specialty Constraints: An Application of GIS & OR Techniques" by Don Weigel & Buyang Cao. The following individuals volunteered to act as coaches who help guide the finalists through the complex process of the competition: Anthony Brigandi (Cerestar), Russ Labe (Johnston County Public Schools), Lynne McCullough (Bosques Arauco), Peter Norden (Maritrans), William Stripling (Pacific Lumber), U. V. Subbarao (Sears), and Al Williams (Grantham, Mayo, van Otterloo). Our thanks to all of them. Isolated Practitioner Workshop The 12th workshop in this series will be held at the INFORMS Montreal meeting on April 27, from 6:15-7:15 p.m. in the Duluth Room. Wine and cheese will be served. Jack Theurer, of G. Theurer Associates, has been the motivating force behind these informal, off-the-cuff workshops. The workshops have been panel discussions, group forums or single-speaker presentations on timely issues that are of interest to isolated practitioners (i.e., Lone Rangers) of operations research and management science. Daniel H. Wagner Prize CPMS approved a $1,000 cash prize for the winner of the Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice. Semi-finalists will be notified before the Montreal meeting. The prize will be awarded at the fall meeting in Seattle, after the finalist presentations. All finalists' papers will be published in a special issue of Interfaces. Judging of the final papers and selection of the winning entry will be on the basis of: Quality and coherence of analysis and originality of mathematical solutions; Quality and clarity of writing; Utility or success of the work in one or more real-world practice applications; and Satisfactory oral presentation in public, at the scheduled time and place. For more information, visit the INFORMS web site, (Information and News, Prizes) or send e-mail to discenza@aquik.net. Seeing is Believing CPMS announces the release of new videotapes from the 1997 Franz Edelman Award. The new releases are: SNCF-National Railroad of France, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Pacific Gas and Electric, Taco Bell, and the U.S. Department of Energy. For practitioners, these tapes highlight real-world applications of OR/MS to enhance revenue growth, improve margin and increase volume and market share. For classroom use, these tapes help students see beyond modeling techniques to their practical application in world-class examples. Students see OR/MS analysts overcome real-world barriers. Professors can spice up their courses and add validity to the methodology being taught. Tapes are $125 each or $75 with purchase of five or more. For more information, send e-mail to: mary.steffens@informs.org or write for a catalog. Join CPMS The major purpose of CPMS, the Practice Section of INFORMS, is to promote practice by focusing on the great value of management science and operations research and on the problems and applications that impact managerial decision making. Dues are $16 for INFORMS members and $24 for non-members. Call 800-446-3676; e-mail: member.services@informs.org; or write to INFORMS, 901 Elkridge Landing Road, Suite 400, Linthicum, MD, 21090. Table of Contents OR/MS Today Home Page OR/MS Today copyright © 1998 by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. All rights reserved. Lionheart Publishing, Inc. 506 Roswell Street, Suite 220, Marietta, GA 30060, USA Phone: 770-431-0867 | Fax: 770-432-6969 E-mail: lpi@lionhrtpub.com URL: http://www.lionhrtpub.com Web Site © Copyright 1998 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.