A Letter to the Readers of Interfaces

Since I accepted the post as editor of Interfaces, I have been asking people what they think is good about Interfaces and what new directions it should take. My starting point is that the journal should reflect the needs and goals of our societies but should not overlap with other journals or activities. Let me couch my perceptions in a short history of MS/OR.

Initially, the first discoveries in linear programming and stochastic processes defined MS/OR. We grew separately from industrial engineering: the industrial engineers focused on plant floor issues and work methods, whereas we strove for a wider range of applications with our new tools. Our ideas diffused into such activities as operations analysis and planning, corporate planning, marketing, and finance; into various sectors including business, health care, the military, and civilian government; and such subjects as computer science, engineering, sociology, and economics. The diffusion is so complete that many practitioners of MS/OR do not identify with the field at all.