Introduction: 2017 Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice

Competition for the 2017 Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice provided the six finalist papers featured in this special issue of Interfaces. The prestigious Wagner Prize—awarded for achievement in implemented operations research, management science, and advanced analytics—emphasizes quality and originality of mathematical models and clarity of written and oral exposition. Researchers from Lehigh University, in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, won the competition for their development of a novel hierarchical, multiobjective mixed-integer linear optimization model, which assigns inmates to correctional institutions and schedules their programs, while considering all legal restrictions and best-practice constraints. This successful project opens a rich and untouched area for the application of operations research. The new model and methodology can be utilized for the assignment of inmates in any correctional system. The remaining papers describe work on audience targeting for television advertising, optimizing railroad crew assignments, applying machine-learning models to healthcare and criminal justice, personalized treatment design for managing diabetes, and optimization in bulk tanker transport operations.

Full presentation videos with slides are available in the INFORMS Video Library at https://www.informs.org/Resource-Center/Video-Library, and as electronic companions to the Interfaces articles.