Jan Karel Lenstra (born 19 December 1947, in Zaandam) is 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

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, known for his work on scheduling algorithms, local search, and the travelling salesman problem. Lenstra received his Ph.D. from the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

in 1976, advised by Gijsbert de Leve. He then became a researcher at the

Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica The (abbr. CWI; English: "National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science") is a research centre in the field of mathematics and theoretical computer science. It is part of the institutes organization of the Dutch Research Cou ...

, where he remained until 1989. After taking positions 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 ...

(where he became Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science) and 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 ...

, he returned to CWI as its director in 2003. He stepped down in 2011, and at that time became a CWI Fellow.. He was editor-in-chief of ''

Mathematics of Operations Research ''Mathematics of Operations Research'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal established in February 1976. It focuses on areas of mathematics relevant to the field of operations research such as continuous optimization, discrete optimiz ...

'' from 1993 to 1998, and is editor-in-chief of ''Operations Research Letters'' since 2002.Faculty profile
CWI, retrieved 2011-11-08. Lenstra became an

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 ...

fellow in 2004. In 1997, he was awarded the EURO Gold Medal, the highest distinction within

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 ...

in Europe. In 2011, he was made a knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and the CWI organized a symposium in his honor. Lenstra is the brother of Arjen Lenstra, Andries Lenstra, and Hendrik Lenstra, all of whom are also mathematicians. He is married to

Karen Aardal Karen I. Aardal (born 1961) is a Norwegian and Dutch applied mathematician, theoretical computer scientist, and operations researcher. Her research involves combinatorial optimization, integer programming, approximation algorithms, and facility lo ...

, in 2020 professor at Delft University.

Publications

Jan Karel Lenstra
// DBLP,

Universität Trier The University of Trier (german: Universität Trier), in the German city of Trier, was founded in 1473. Closed in 1798 by order of the then French administration in Trier, the university was re-established in 1970 after a hiatus of some 172 y ...

* Peter J. M. van Laarhoven, Emile H. L. Aarts, Jan Karel Lenstra.
Job Shop Scheduling by Simulated Annealinginfo
//

, , pp. 113-125. * Emile H. L. Aarts, Peter J. M. van Laarhoven, Jan Karel Lenstra, Nico L. J. Ulder: A Computational Study of Local Search Algorithms for Job Shop Scheduling. // INFORMS Journal on Computing 6(2): 118-125 (1994)
dblp

References

Sources

''Album Academicum'' (website University of Amsterdam)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenstra, Jan Karel 1947 births Living people Dutch mathematicians Dutch operations researchers University of Amsterdam alumni Eindhoven University of Technology faculty Georgia Tech faculty Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion People from Zaanstad Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences