Perspectives in Operations Research: Papers in Honor of Saul Gass' 80th Birthday (Operations Research Computer Science Interfaces Series)

A Symposium was held on February 25, 2006 in honor of the 80th birthday of Saul I. Gass and his major contributions to the field of operations research over 50 years. This volume includes articles from each of the Symposium speakers plus 16 other articles from friends, colleagues, and former students. Each contributor offers a forward-looking perspective on the future development of the field. Contents......Page 7 Photo Gallery......Page 10 Part I: History & Perspectives......Page 26 Reflections on Saul Gass' Influence......Page 27 Four Score Years of Saul I. Gass: Portrait of an OR Professional......Page 30 In the Beginning: Saul Gass and Other Pioneers......Page 80 Learning from the Master: Saul Gass, Linear Programming and the OR Profession......Page 83 Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards: Reflections on Definitions of Operations Research by Morse and Kimball......Page 105 Ben Franklin: America's First Operations Researcher......Page 121 Good Management, the Missing XYZ Variables of OR Texts......Page 129 The Operations Research Profession: Westward, Look, the Land is Bright......Page 141 Part II: Optimization & Heuristic Search......Page 156 Choosing a Combinatorial Auction Design: An Illustrated Example......Page 157 Label-Correcting Shortest Path Algorithms Revisited......Page 182 The Ubiquitous Farkas Lemma......Page 201 Parametric Cardinality Probing in Set Partitioning......Page 213 A Counting Problem in Linear Programming......Page 224 Towards Exposing the Applicability of Gass & Saaty's Parametric Programming Procedure......Page 236 The Noisy Euclidean Traveling Salesman Problem: A Computational Analysis......Page 248 The Close Enough Traveling Salesman Problem: A Discussion of Several Heuristics......Page 272 Twinless Strongly Connected Components......Page 285 Part III: Modeling & Making Decisions......Page 305 EOQ Rides Again!......Page 306 Federal Express Sort Facility Employee Scheduling Problem......Page 331 Sensitivity Analysis in Monte Carlo Simulation of Stochastic Activity Networks......Page 348 The EM Algorithm, Its Randomized Implementation and Global Optimization: Some Challenges and Opportunities for Operations Research......Page 364 Recovering Circles and Spheres from Point Data......Page 390 Why the New York Yankees Signed Johnny Damon......Page 411 D......Page 425 O......Page 426 T......Page 427 Saul Gass has been a leading contributor to the field of Operations Research for more than 50 years. He has been affiliated with the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland for more than 30 years. On February 25, 2006,'Operations Research in the 21st Century: A Symposium in Honor of Professor Saul Gass'80th Birthday,'was held on our campus. Opening remarks by Deans Howard Prank and Rudy Lamone were followed by talks by Alfred Blumstein, Karla Hoffman, Richard Larson, Christoph Witzgall, Thomas Magnanti, Rakesh Vohra, and Bruce Golden. The celebration continued into the evening with dinner in the Executive Din­ ing Room of Van Munching Hall, followed by numerous toasts to Saul. It was a special day for all of us who were in attendance, but it was especially memorable for Saul and his family. This Festschrift companion to the Symposium includes articles from each of the Symposium distinguished speakers plus 16 other articles from friends, colleagues, and several of Saul's former students. The book is divided into three sections. The first section comprises eight articles focusing on the field of Operations Research from a historical or professional perspective. The second section contains nine articles whose theme is optimization and heuristic search, while the third section includes six articles in the general area of modeling and decision making. Collectively, these articles pay tribute to Saul Gass'major interests in the field of Operations Research.

The book is an edited volume from leading research scholars in the field of Operations Research, focusing on future perspectives in OR. Each of the contributors offers their perspective looking forward to the further development of the field. The theme will provide pivotal interest in the book because of prominence of the contributors and Saul Gass' position as one of the founders of OR and his involvement in writing about the history of OR. The history of operations research is of considerable interest and this book takes a pivotal perspective of OR's history by examining current trends and the future of the field.