Setting the Stage

From its inception, INFORMS has been a place for people interested in the theory and practice of operations research (O.R.) to connect over shared ideas and to actualize their potential through community. As this year’s INFORMS president, I am honored to continue this tradition while also leading our community to consider the most pressing issues and innovations affecting the field. I would like to use my first President’s Desk column in OR/MS Today to communicate my priorities over the coming year. First, the board and I aim to elevate several areas growing in prominence across the OR/MS landscape where we believe our community can (and should) expand its impact. My second intention is to reaffirm our commitment to inclusivity within and beyond the INFORMS community. There is significance in being first in any role, and I am keenly aware of this as the first African American INFORMS president. Although some might assert that personal identities have little impact on how you show up and engage in work, I believe, in fact, that our personal identities significantly inform how we see the world; it is this unique perspective, in addition to our technical education and training, that elevates and enhances the work that we engage in and the outcomes that we pursue. We are a vibrant community looking to the science of OR/MS to make smarter decisions for a better world.

New Committees and More

INFORMS has a longstanding committee on artificial intelligence (AI). Today, AI has an impact in every arena. There remain exciting technical questions in AI in terms of improving machine learning (ML) and reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms. In addition, there are implementations that use AI to improve or enhance a user’s experience. For example, recommender systems [1] are necessarily equipped with ML and RL algorithms. There are also still questions about how AI will influence education, both in how lessons are designed and in how they are delivered. Last year, thanks to my predecessor David Hunt, INFORMS started an ad hoc committee on quantum computing [2]. In the world of large-scale computational needs, building computers that can meet these needs is crucial and, I think, within reach.

This year, I will seek board approval to institute two further ad hoc committees. The first is partially in response to the needs for computing power and partially in response to what appears to be a reduced focus of the federal government. This committee will consider an INFORMS-wide focus on energy and sustainability. Although clearly not a new topic, I feel that the OR/MS community is poised to meet new challenges. For example, what should be the response for an increased demand for energy for computing power? Should there be further incentive programs for homes to move toward solar (decreasing demands on the grid)? What lessons can be learned from our international colleagues on battery exchange programs for electric vehicles (and what new challenges arise)? What can logistics companies do to ensure they have a reduced carbon footprint, given the expectation of near-next-day delivery of goods?

The second committee I would like to start is on humanitarian operations and logistics. This, again, is not a new area for the OR/MS community, but new policies require a renewed vision. With the U.S. Agency for International Development cut worldwide and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits reduced domestically [3], what should be the response in terms of supply procurement and dissemination? Given the increased demand for benefits, how might the community respond in places without a long-term infrastructure in place? These topics have natural intersections with the scope of work already advanced by the Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment (ENRE) and Public and Societal Operations Research (PSOR) communities within INFORMS. On the other hand, much like AI, I imagine with the scale of each of the problems, the ad hoc committees will find cross-cutting applications. Indeed, the battery exchange issue previously mentioned could be closely connected to Location Analysis (another INFORMS community). Humanitarian operations will often find synergies with the Health Applications Society as well.

What I hope to accomplish by instituting each of these committees is to raise the importance of these areas community-wide. In doing so, I hope to encourage even further cross-pollination, whether it be from academics in adjacent fields or between academia and industry. On that last point, I believe that all of these areas are closer than they have been since the ORSA/TIMS days. That is to say, the research done in academia can be virtually directly applied to the real world, which would then influence more problems considered by academia in a cycle.

Circling back to my second intention for this article, I hope that every member of INFORMS feels welcomed as a part of this community. If you have yet to find your place, I invite you to explore not only our societies and sections but also our affinity groups – Minority Issues Forum (MIF), Women in OR/MS (WORMS), PRIDE Forum, the Military Veterans Interest Forum, etc. – for both mentorship and friendship.

References

1. S. Raza, M. Rahman, S. Kamawal, A. Toroghi, A. Raval, F. Navah and A. Kazemeini, 2025, “A Comprehensive Review of Recommender Systems: Transitioning from Theory to Practice,” Computer Science Review, Vol. 59, Art. no. 100849.
2. D. Hunt, 2025, “Introducing the INFORMS Quantum Computing and Operations Research Ad Hoc Committee,” OR/MS Today, Vol. 52, No. 1, January 31, https://doi.org/10.1287/orms.2025.01.02.
3. J. Joffe-Block, 2025, “The Agriculture Secretary Says SNAP Changes Are Coming. Here’s What We Know,” NPR, December 1, https://www.whro.org/2025-12-01/the-agriculture-secretary-says-snap-changes-are-coming-heres-what-we-know.