The field of operations research emerged from the analysis and solution of urgent military problems during World War II. With the end of the war and the consolidation of newly developed optimization and stochastic models into a recognized body of knowledge, the field became known for applications in business, management, and industry, especially regarding manufacturing and production management, transportation, and services. Yet the publicly spirited origins of operations research never left us, and even a brief review of the history of the field surfaces many books and articles devoted to problems of the public sector.¹

So what has changed regarding public sector applications of operations research? Nothing and everything. Nothing, in that as has always been the case, a successful operations research application requires understanding the environment or system in which the object of study is embedded. Everything, in that many of the public sector problems felt most acutely today differ from those of the past. For example, the HIV epidemic, terrorism and homeland security, illicit drugs, chronic diseases linked to poor nutrition and obesity, and the importance of satisfying individual preferences in the provision of public services while improving their efficiency, have led to new interventions and programs and new operations research methods for modeling and evaluating their results.

INFORMS recognizes the importance of attacking public problems—it is a stated goal of our society that “Operations research and analytics will advance society and make the world a better place.”² With such spirit in mind, this issue of Editor’s Cut presents a broad cross-section of applications to problems in public health, homeland security and counterterrorism, and public services. Most of these articles were published in INFORMS journals within the past decade, although a few older classics are also included. In addition, links to a small number of impactful papers by INFORMS members that have appeared in non-INFORMS journals are provided, along with supporting video and news media documentation. Whether you are looking for ways operations research tackles societal challenges, classroom examples, personal inspiration, or just interesting reads, this Editor’s Cut volume showcases INFORMS members at their best as they confront public problems. The featured authors have been “doing stuff” with operations research, and the results are impressive indeed.

¹See, for example, Operations Research for Public Systems (PM Morse (ed.), Cambridge: MIT Press, 1967), Analysis of Public Systems (AW Drake, RL Keeney, and PM Morse (eds.), Cambridge: MIT Press, 1972), Urban Operations Research (RC Larson and AR Odoni, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1981), and Operations Research and the Public Sector (SM Pollock, MH Rothkopf, and A Barnett (eds.), Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1994).

²Member-in-Chief Memo, “Let’s Do Stuff!” (EH Kaplan, OR/MS Today, Vol. 43, No. 1, February 2016, p. 8).