2/28/97
11:27 AM
Dr. Robert Herman, the often-honored member of INFORMS whose
celebrated 60-year scientific career took him from the unimaginable
expanses of the universe as a renowned physicist to the center of
urban congestion as the father of transportation science, died Feb.
13 at his home in Austin, Texas. He was 82.
The cause of death was lung cancer.
The founding editor of Transportation Science, Herman received many accolades from his INFORMS colleagues over the years including the von Neumann Theory Prize, the Lanchester Prize and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Transportation Science Tech Section. He latter award was renamed the Robert Herman Lifetime Achievement Award.
Professor Herman is perhaps best known in the scientific community
for his work with Dr. Ralph A. Alpher in the 1940s which led to a
paper, published in 1948, that predicted the existence of cosmic
microwave background radiation in support of what became known as the
Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe. Sixteen years later,
the background radiation was officially "discovered" by two other
scientists, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who were awarded the
Nobel Prize.
The National Academy of Sciences, making up for what many considered
an oversight, awarded Dr. Herman and Dr. Alpher the Draper Medal in
1994.
Dr. Herman was the L.P. Gilvin Centennial Professor in Civil
Engineering at the University of Texas. He is survived by his wife,
Helen, three daughters and two grandsons.
2/27/97
4:13 PM
Dr. Alan Pritsker testified at the open hearings of the Department of Health and Human Services on Liver Allocation Policy (OR/MS Today, February 1997) held at the NIH complex in Bethesda, Md. While there, he explained the outputs of the Untied Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Liver Allocation Model, ULAM.
This model projects more patient life years, or more specifically, an increase in the probability of survivability for transplanted patients and a greater number of different patients to be transplanted for the proposed new policy.
ULAM was developed as a joint effort between Pritsker Corporation and UNOS. Professor James R. Wilson of North Carolina State University built models to project donor arrivals to Organ Procurement Organizations and patient arrivals to transplant centers.
For more information about the Pritsker Corporation, point your
browser to
http://www.pritsker.com
2/27/97
4:11 PM
Imagine an aircraft small enough to fit in the palm of
oneís hand, yet able to fly into damaged buildings to search
for survivors or onto battlefields to detect toxic chemicals.
"Micro Air Vehicles" capable of these and other tasks are the goals
for a new program sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency.
Designers of these vehicles face tremendous challenges and a host of unknowns. With no flying vehicle of this size in existence, designers must look to birds and insects for information about flight principles on a scale this small. Researchers believe aerodynamic principles governing aircraft with six-inch wings may be significantly different from those that have guided aircraft design since the Wright Brothersí 1903 airplane.
Despite being flown under human control, the MicroFlyers must also be independent enough to avoid obstacles and maintain stable flight by themselves. Designers are aiming at a $1,000 per-unit cost for the expendable flyers.
For more information about Micro Air Vehicles and the First International Conference on Emerging Technologies for Micro Aerial Vehicles, point your browser to http://spbtrc.gtri.gatech.edu/MicroVehicle
2/27/97
4:10 PM
Browsing the web for environmental information will soon become easier thanks to MIT technology. The Global System for Sustainable Development (G.S.S.D.) is an adaptive intelligent-agent interface for the Internet that makes it easier to access and analyze the complex, multidimensional aspects of environmental problems.
Currently available on a testing basis, G.S.S.D. allows individuals to access web sites of environmental information that has been pre-screened by MIT and is coherently organized and cross-referenced for use in the system.
The system is a collaborative effort by the Department of Political Science and the Technology and Development Program, along with the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Computer Science and the Center for International Studies.
For more information about the Global System for Sustainable
Development, point your browser to
http://gssd.mit.edu/application.html
2/27/97
4:09 PM
"Mathematics and the Internet" is the theme for Mathematics Awareness Week, April 20 - 26. Developments in mathematical fields such as number theory and queuing theory have enabled key Internet technologies including data encryption for secure financial transactions, data compression for messages with audio and/or video components, and routing and network configuration.
The Internet has played a major role in significantly increasing the impact and reach of Mathematics Awareness Week in recent years. E-mail, discussion lists and web sites are now commonly used to gather, exchange and disseminate ideas and materials.
Mathematics Awareness Week is coordinated by the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics on behalf of three national mathematics organizations: the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Additional financial support is provided INFORMS.
For more information about Mathematics Awareness Week, point your
browser to:
http://forum.swarthmore.edu/maw/
2/10/97
11:16 AM
Adam Brandenburger, professor of business administration, Harvard Business School, and Barry Nalebuff, professor of economics and management, Yale School of Management, are jointly discussing co-opetition, the business game theory of concurrent cooperation and competition, at the 1997 International Strategic Leadership Conference, April 27-30 in Washington, DC.
"This is one of the hottest strategies in the business today," said William E. Hess, chairman of the Strategic Leadership Forum, which is sponsoring the event.
Putting aside long-standing Harvard-Yale rivalries, these professors are coming together to discuss this topic during a lecture, entitled, "Co-Opetition: Competitive and Cooperative Business Strategies for the Digital Economy."
For more information about the 1997 International Strategic
Leadership Conference, contact Dave Perry at 1 (800) 873-5995.
2/10/97
11:14 AM
According to a recent data brief released by the National Science Foundation, non-U.S. citizens earned 40 percent of the science and engineering doctorates awarded by U.S. universities in 1995 - a 13 percentage point increase since 1985.
Most of the 10,493 non-U.S. citizen degree recipients were from Asian countries; the top four countries were China, Taiwan, India and Korea. Canadian and Mexican students earned 274 and 129 degrees respectively.
At the point of graduation in 1995, many non-U.S. citizen doctoral recipients had plans to remain in the United States after graduation, the report says.
Of those who planned to stay:
For a copy of the report, call (703) 306-1173 or send e-mail to [email protected]