From Data to Water
Reliable water access is not just a development issue. It is also a resilience issue that should be a fundamental human right. Being able to access dependable water resources lies at the heart of disaster preparedness, health, agriculture, and community stability. Many countries still lack this essential resilience against disasters big and small.
DEPARTMENTS 
Inside Story
A Bold New Journey
The new editor of OR/MS Today, Barbara Gabriel, introduces herself and reviews the articles in this issue.
President's Desk
ORMS Summer Update
INFORMS President Mark E. Lewis updates members on his latest initiatives.
HQ Highlights
A Big Tent, by Design
Executive Director Elena Gerstmann discusses the wide community served by INFORMS.
Forum
Using LLMs to Synthesize Survey Data
In today’s rapidly changing world, it is getting increasingly difficult and costly to obtain representative samples when collecting survey data.. Given the noisy nature of online data, a better trained and tuned LLM decision engine could provide better intelligence to remove noise or amplify signals in a sea of data.
Op-Ed
Revisiting “The Great Mathematical Sputnik of 1979”
This op-ed revisits the 1979 discovery of Leonid Khachiyan’s polynomial time algorithm for linear programming, tracing how the breakthrough reached the West and was verified by international mathematicians.
In Memoriam
Remembering Aaron Burciaga
The INFORMS community was deeply saddened to learn of Aaron Burciaga’s passing in March 2026. Aaron was a long-time friend of this community, one of its strongest supporters, and one of those rare people whose service left an imprint on both the profession and the people in it.
INFORMS Awards & Prizes
2026 Edelman Gala Celebrates Excellence
The 2026 Analytics+ Conference recognized the best of the best in analytics at its annual Edelman Gala.
Probability Management
The ChanceOmeter
AI is lowering the barrier to building probabilistic tools, making it feasible for practitioners who are not software developers to construct and deploy stochastic models. For a discipline that has long faced the challenge of communicating uncertainty to non-technical audiences, that is a meaningful development.
Quantum Computing
A Year in Review
The INFORMS Quantum Computing and Operations Research (QCOR) Ad Hoc Committee highlights some of its many activities related to quantum computing that happened within INFORMS, or adjacent to INFORMS, during the past year.
Viewpoint
Beyond the Bounds
For decades, the O.R. community has lamented its lack of impact in the C-suite, blaming poor communication or a lack of data literacy. But the real problem is our obsession with solving the same old problems a fraction faster, rather than augmenting our capabilities to solve entirely new problems.
Advocacy
Science Doesn't Speak for Itself
The relationship between science and government requires active stewardship. Organizations that invest in that stewardship help shape the conditions under which research is funded, used, and protected. Organizations that do not invest in stewardship leave those conditions to be defined by others.
Conference Preview
Welcome to the 2026 INFORMS Healthcare Conference
The challenges facing healthcare remain as pressing as ever. As one of the premier gatherings in the field, the INFORMS Healthcare Conference 2026, hosted in Raleigh, NC, on July 28-30, brings together researchers, practitioners, clinicians, policymakers, engineers, data scientists, and innovators from across the healthcare ecosystem.
Optimization
Optimization4All
To achieve better collaboration in the field of mathematical optimization, Cristina Radu founded Optimization4All (O4A) in 2024 as an educational project that brings together students, professionals, and organizations in the O.R. field. With its mission to increase awareness about the benefits of mathematical optimization to society, the O4A team created a space in which optimization is open, accessible, and inclusive.
Roundtable Profile
Driving Collaboration and Optimization at Coupang
Coupang balances quality, speed, and cost at scale, allowing the company to respond quickly and accurately to strategic questions, including where to place inventory, where to position fulfillment capacity, how to allocate orders across the network, how to maximize throughput inside each fulfillment center, and how to plan middle-mile and last-mile transportation.
Decision Intelligence
The Next Frontier in Decision Intelligence
OR/MS has always been about making better decisions. Data independence extends that mission. It asks us to look beyond algorithms and models and examine the foundation on which they are built. It challenges us to treat data not just as a resource, but as a governed asset with defined ownership and value.
Last Word
Culture Eats AI Strategy for Breakfast
While the rise of GenAI presents a challenge for higher education, it also offers an opportunity. By focusing on culture rather than consequences, we can ensure our students develop the critical thinking skills they will need for a world where GenAI is a partner in their intellectual and professional lives.