Introduction: 2016 Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice

Competition for the 2016 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 the Université Laval, The Forestry Research Institute of Sweden, and the SDC, Sweden, won the competition for their development of a highly successful algorithm and software to determine optimal routing for trucks operating in the Swedish forestry industry. The remaining finalist papers describe work to improve hospital staffing, dealer inventory of automotive vehicles, agricultural productivity through genetic modifications of crops, wastewater treatment, and real-time video ad selection.

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.