operations research
Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve deci ...
er, the A. Russell Chandler III Chair and Institute Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...
and the former president of the
Operations Research Society of America
The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research (O.R.), management science, and analytics. It was established in 1995 with the merger o ...
.ORSA Presidential Portrait Gallery: George L. Nemhauser retrieved 2012-02.25.
Biography
Nemhauser was born in
The Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, New York, and did his undergraduate education at the
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
, graduating with a degree in
chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...
in 1958. He earned his Ph.D. in operations research in 1961 from
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
, under the supervision of Jack Mitten. He taught at
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
from 1961 to 1969, and then moved to
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, where he held the Leon C. Welch endowed chair in operations research. He moved to the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1985.
He was president of ORSA in 1981, chair of the
Mathematical Programming Society The Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS), known as the Mathematical Programming Society until 2010,
Research
Nemhauser's research concerns large
mixed integer programming
Linear programming (LP), also called linear optimization, is a method to achieve the best outcome (such as maximum profit or lowest cost) in a mathematical model whose requirements are represented by linear relationships. Linear programming is ...
problems and their applications.. He is one of the co-inventors of the branch and price method for solving
integer linear program
An integer programming problem is a mathematical optimization or feasibility program in which some or all of the variables are restricted to be integers. In many settings the term refers to integer linear programming (ILP), in which the objectiv ...
s. He also contributed important early studies of
approximation algorithm
In computer science and operations research, approximation algorithms are efficient algorithms that find approximate solutions to optimization problems (in particular NP-hard problems) with provable guarantees on the distance of the returned solu ...
s for
facility location Facility location is a name given to several different problems in computer science and in game theory:
* Facility location problem, the optimal placement of facilities as a function of transportation costs and other factors
* Facility location (co ...
problems and for submodular optimization. Nemhauser, together with Leslie Trotter, showed in 1975 that the optimal solution to the weighted
vertex cover
In graph theory, a vertex cover (sometimes node cover) of a graph is a set of vertices that includes at least one endpoint of every edge of the graph.
In computer science, the problem of finding a minimum vertex cover is a classical optimizat ...
problem contains all the nodes that have a value of 1 in the linear programming relaxation as well as some of the nodes that have a value of 0.5.
Books
Nemhauser is the author of
*''Introduction to Dynamic Programming (Wiley, 1966)
*''Integer Programming'' (with Robert Garfinkel, Wiley, 1972, )
*''Integer and Combinatorial Optimization'' (with Laurence A. Wolsey, Wiley, 1988, ).
*''Optimization'' (with A. H. G. Rinnooy Kan and Michael J. Todd, North-Holland, 1989)
Awards and honors
Nemhauser was elected as a member of the
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...
in 1986, a fellow of
INFORMS
The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research (O.R.), management science, and analytics. It was established in 1995 with the merger of ...
in 2002, and a fellow of the
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific socie ...
in 2008. He has won five awards from INFORMS: the
George E. Kimball Medal
George Elbert Kimball (July 12, 1906 – December 6, 1967) was an American professor of quantum chemistry, and a pioneer of operations research algorithms during World War II.
Early life
George E. Kimball was born to Arthur G. Kimball in Chic ...
for distinguished service to INFORMS and to the profession in 1988, the
Frederick W. Lanchester Prize
The Frederick W. Lanchester Prize is an Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences prize (U.S. $5,000 cash prize and medallion) given for the best contribution to operations research and the management sciences published in Engli ...
in 1977 for a paper on
approximation algorithm
In computer science and operations research, approximation algorithms are efficient algorithms that find approximate solutions to optimization problems (in particular NP-hard problems) with provable guarantees on the distance of the returned solu ...
s for
facility location Facility location is a name given to several different problems in computer science and in game theory:
* Facility location problem, the optimal placement of facilities as a function of transportation costs and other factors
* Facility location (co ...
and again in 1989 for his textbook ''Integer and Combinatorial Optimization'', the Phillip McCord Morse Lectureship Award in 1992, the first Optimization Society Khachiyan Prize for Life-time Accomplishments in Optimization in 2010, and the
John von Neumann Theory Prize
The John von Neumann Theory Prize of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
is awarded annually to an individual (or sometimes a group) who has made fundamental and sustained contributions to theory in operati ...
in 2012 (together with Laurence Wolsey). Announcement by INFORMS