Jacobus Franciscus (Jacques) Benders (1 June 1924 – 9 January 2017) was a Dutch

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and Emeritus Professor of

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 ...

at the

Eindhoven University of Technology The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc a ...

. He was the first Professor in the Netherlands in the field of Operations ResearchGerard Alberts en Jan Schut (1994). ''Wiskunde en praktijk in historische perspectief: reader''. p.170. and is known for his contributions to

mathematical programming Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criterion, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfi ...

Biography

Benders studied mathematics at the

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

, where he later also received his PhD in 1960 with the thesis entitled "Partitioning in Mathematical Programming" under supervision of

Hans Freudenthal Hans Freudenthal (17 September 1905 – 13 October 1990) was a Jewish-German-born Dutch mathematician. He made substantial contributions to algebraic topology and also took an interest in literature, philosophy, history and mathematics education ...

. Late 1940s had started his career as statistician for the Rubber Foundation. In 1955 he moved to Shell laboratory in Amsterdam, where he researched

problems concerning the logistics of

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

. He developed the technique known as

Benders' decomposition Benders decomposition (or Benders' decomposition) is a technique in mathematical programming that allows the solution of very large linear programming problems that have a special block structure. This block structure often occurs in applications ...

, and used the results in his doctoral thesis. In 1963 Benders was appointed Professor of

at the

, being the first Professor in the Netherlands in that field. Among his PhD students were Israel Herschberg (1966),

Jaap Wessels Jacobus (Jaap) Wessels (19 January 1939 – 30 July 2009) was a Dutch mathematician and Professor of Stochastic Operations Research at the Eindhoven University of Technology, Jo van Nunen and Jaap van der Wal. "Jaap Wessels–his life with stocha ...

(1968), Freerk Lootsma (1970), Joseph Evers (1973), Jan van Geldrop (1980), Robert van der Vet (1980) Johannes van der Wal (1980), and Jacob Koene (1982). He retired at the Eindhoven University of Technology on May 31, 1989. In 2009 he was awarded the

EURO Gold Medal The EURO Gold medal of the Association of European Operational Research Societies (EURO) is the highest distinction within Operations Research (OR) in Europe. The prize was first awarded to Hans-Jürgen Zimmermann in 1985. The medal is awarded a ...

, the highest distinction within

in Europe.

Publications

Benders has authored and co-authored dozens publications.Benders, J. F.
list of publications 1980–85. Books, a selection: * 1960. ''Partitioning in mathematical programming''. Doctoral thesis Utrecht University. * 1961. ''Mathematische programmering: syllabus college Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht 1960–1961'' * 1964.
De taak van de wiskunde in de operations research
'. Inaugurele rede. * 1982. ''Een decision support systeem voor locatie en allocatieproblemen bij een drankenconcern''. With

Jo van Nunen Johannes Arnoldus Elizabeth Emmanuel van Nunen (23 December 1945 – 12 May 2010) was a Dutch engineer, management consultant, and Professor of Logistics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and expert in the field of logistics, Supply Chain Managem ...

. Articles, a selection: * Benders, Jacques F.
Partitioning procedures for solving mixed-variables programming problems
" Numerische mathematik 4.1 (1962): 238–252.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benders, Jacques F. Benders 1924 births 2017 deaths Dutch mathematicians Dutch operations researchers Utrecht University alumni Eindhoven University of Technology faculty People from Swalmen