During the course of his illustrious career as a naval officer and now as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen has been bombarded with military intelligence and information – some of it good, some of it not so good – but perhaps the worst advice he ever received came more than 25 years ago when he was anxious to pursue a master’s degree in operations research at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.
Volume 37, Number 4, August 2010
FEATURE ARTICLES
DEPARTMENTS 
Inside Story
Chat with the Chairman
It all began at the INFORMS meeting in Orlando, Fla., in April when Barry List, the director of communications for INFORMS, and Anne Robinson, INFORMS VP of Marketing, Communications and Outreach, were discussing potential interview subjects for Barry’s engaging series of podcasts (www.scienceofbetter.org). Jerry Brown, a professor in the O.R. Department at the Naval Postgraduate School, happened to walk past and Anne invited him to join the conversation.
President's Desk
Revelation about O.R. during trip to ER
I have been researching, teaching and practicing operations research for more than 30 years, but it is only in the last week or so that I have completely understood the content of our profession. My revelation came to me in a hospital. I had gone to the emergency room, had many tests, was eventually admitted, had a procedure and was released after a few days. (I am totally fine – don’t worry!)
Issues in Education
‘Management science thinking’
In 1998, the president of the American Statistical Association, David S. Moore, wrote a presidential address titled “Statistics Among the Liberal Arts” [1] in which he discusses the critical role of introductory statistics to the field of statistics.Many of his points are equally relevant to our field. Similar to those in the field of statistics, we are often focused more on academics, practitioners and graduate-level students and view management science as a field for those with advanced degrees.However, the exposure to management science for a majority of students will be comprised of a single undergraduate course. The hope is that students will become so enamored with the topics to pursue further study in the area, but this is a reality for only a select few. Instead of training future management scientists, such courses are our chance to provide the image to our students of a field of concepts and tools relevant to all aspects of their decision-making.
INFORMS in the News
Academic inbreeding, quell queue rage, inside Big Brown
Adm. Mike Mullen’s discussion about O.R. in the U.S. military (page 24) wasn’t the only INFORMS podcast that shared provocative conversation with leading O.R. thinkers. Recent podcasts have included talks about homeland security and intelligence by Yale’s Ed Kaplan and the Naval Postgraduate School’s Dave Alderson. Visit www.scienceofbetter.org and www.informs.org to download the latest selections.
Forum
‘See Ellen win’
Sylvia Rimm produced the Rimm Report in 1999. Her study, “See Jane Win,” escaped the anger of the glass ceiling and strove to discover what characteristics are common among successful women. Success has to do with self-discovery, confidence, strength, education, activity, balance and letting go of excuses. The research showed that careers that are challenging, make a contribution and allow creativity make women feel successful. This same set of circumstances produces feelings of success regardless of gender, ethnicity, background, etc. When I was asked to participate in this rather lengthy survey, I felt honored and knew this would be a learning experience [1].
Journal Highlights
Queueing theory vs. terror plots
In the new book “Son ofHamas,”former terrorist Mosab Hassan Yousef reveals how he informed on Hamas for Israel’s Shin Bet security service over a period of 10 years. Yousef’s story illustrates the importance of confidential informants and undercover agents more broadly in operational counterterrorism. In the United States,many terror plots have been interdicted thanks to evidence procured by undercover agents and informants.
PuzzlOR
Relief mission
Coordinating relief efforts after catastrophes such as civil unrest and natural disasters can be a logistically complex challenge. Delivering relief to people in need is the immediate focus of any disaster management plan.
ORacle
Col. Petrov’s parable
As happens every August, one group by the swimming pool was deeply involved in a conversation about preseason football, especially the big-name quarterback the local team had acquired in the offseason. “He’s over the hill,” George claimed. “No,”Mark demurred, “he’s still more mobile than the younger QB they traded away.”Russ chimed in, “He’d better be mobile.With the problems they still have on the offensive line, he’ll be running for his life!”
Letters to the Editor
Familiar ring to rejection reason
In the 1960s, I was fortunate to have worked on the Apollo manned moonlanding program.My primary duty was to design, develop and determine the deployment of the antennas on the launch vehicle’s (the S-II) second stage. The method I developed to determine antenna deployment (e.g., where to place the antennas so as to best guarantee ground-to-air coverage) was nonlinear goal programming. This was, to my knowledge, the first instance of the application of that method to an engineering design problem.