For decades, analytics has lived with an uncomfortable tradeoff. If you want state-of-the-art accuracy, you must accept complexity and opacity. If you want interpretability, you must settle for weaker performance. In her keynote at the 2026 INFORMS Analytics+ Conference, Cynthia Rudin argued that this tradeoff is not only unnecessary - it is often simply wrong.

Data puns were flying during the first keynote address on the opening day of the 2026 INFORMS Analytics+ Conference at the Gaylord National Hotel in National Harbor, MD. Popularly known as the “Data Whisperer,” opening keynote speaker Scott Taylor took the stage early in the morning to deliver a lively talk about how today’s data analysts can best convey the importance of their work to members of their organizations’ C-suites.

At the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, attendees packed the plenary auditorium to hear Eric Phillips, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Delta Air Lines, share how one of the world’s leading airlines is harnessing the power of operations research, data science and artificial intelligence (AI) to shape the next century of flight. As Delta celebrates its 100th anniversary, Phillips emphasized that the company’s success is built on both mathematical rigor and the human spirit that defines air travel.

• Jingjing Weng

INFORMS members can earn the Senior Member distinction by being the most committed members of our community – the ones who get involved, contribute and engage. The base requirement for becoming a Senior Member is simply being a Regular INFORMS member for five (or more) continuous years.

• Kara Tucker