Volume 53, Issue 1, 2026

FEATURE ARTICLES

Engineering Good Decisions: Reflections on the Life and Work of Ronald A. Howard

The 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting marked a special session dedicated to the first anniversary of the passing of Ronald A. Howard, a founder of the field of decision analysis and a pioneer of operations research (O.R.). We’d like to reflect on and share the life and work of our dedicated colleague.
Lessons from a Long-Term Strategic Partnership

Based on years of collaboration, this article highlights the strategic partnership between Organización Corona, a Colombian multinational specializing in home improvement, and the Data Analytics and Strategic Business Intelligence program at Long Island University (LIU).
Inside the Numbers Game: Analytics and the Next Era of Basketball

For much of its history, professional basketball has been defined by a blend of strategy and athleticism [1]. As player skills have continued to improve, so has the decision-making that shapes the sport.
Optimization, the Quantum Approach

The strange rules of quantum physics are exactly what make quantum computing, and quantum optimization, so powerful. They turn the weirdness of nature into a new way to solve problems faster than ever before. Let’s break it down from the beginning.
- Sara Lodha

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DEPARTMENTS

Inside Story

More Than a Magazine

Kara Tucker

After more than 13 years with INFORMS, this issue of OR/MS Today will be my last as editor. Writing that sentence feels both surreal and deeply meaningful. For nearly a decade, this magazine has been more than a publication to me – it has been a front-row seat to the ingenuity, curiosity and impact of a remarkable community.

President's Desk

Setting the Stage

Mark Lewis

From its inception, INFORMS has been a place for people interested in the theory and practice of operations research (O.R.) to connect over shared ideas and to actualize their potential through community. As this year’s INFORMS president, I am honored to continue this tradition while also leading our community to consider the most pressing issues and innovations affecting the field.

HQ Highlights

Executive Director’s Log: Notes from Day 24 of 2026

Elena Gerstmann

At breakfast this morning, I was thinking about what to write for my first OR/MS Today column of 2026, and I felt an unexpected mix of joy and pride bubble up. That doesn’t always happen when you’re staring at a blank screen eating a bowl of cereal, so I paused and asked myself where it was coming from.

Forum

What Is Learning? The Two Sides of Linear Regression

Ken Fordyce

As firms work to move artificial intelligence (AI) into effective decision support [1] for managing demand supply networks, the hot topic is, “What is learning?” The purpose of this article is to generate discussion on this topic and provide my two cents.

Creating a Business Analytics Department Research Ranking

Which academic business analytics (BA) departments produce the most research? This is a deceptively simple question that many in our field are interested in – from prospective students to academic administrators and industry partners. But finding a rigorous, reliable answer is not easy.

Viewpoint

Making Sense of Ambiguity in Applied Analytics

Aneesh Sajan

We often assume that applied analytics begins with clear questions, reliable metrics and well-defined data. In practice, however, many valuable analytical projects start in ambiguity. I see teams operate in situations in which the problem is loosely defined, the data reflects past system behavior rather than objective truth and success metrics are unclear or openly debated.

Healthcare Analytics

Digital First Responder: A Scalable AI to Uncover Hidden Patient Risk

Prioritizing patients for treatment is often a life-and-death decision. The frontline clinicians must make decisions with incomplete information, and an incorrect decision could result in delay or even death. An artificial intelligence (AI) assistant could “triage at scale” to help clinicians in challenging environments, such as disaster response after an earthquake.

Conference Preview

Learn, Grow and Connect at the Analytics+ Conference

Zohar Strinka, CAP-X

In just a few short weeks, you will have an exceptional opportunity to sharpen your skills, power up your future career and network with the leading experts in the field of analytics.

Marketing Science

From Content Factory to Capital Allocator: Reframing Marketing as a Sequential Decision System

Pavan Kunchala

Marketing’s Hidden O.R. Problem Artificial intelligence (AI) now sits at the center of many marketing decisions. Systems generate content, adjust bids and offers, and modulate customer contact in near real time, all tracked through increasingly granular performance metrics.

Industry-Academia Collaboration

Improving Response Through Advance Operational Planning and Academic Collaboration

Louis Luangkesorn

The mission of the American Red Cross is to prevent and alleviate human suffering during emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. The Red Cross responds to major disasters such as hurricanes, floods and earthquakes.

Member Insights

AI That Actually Ships

Ram Kumar Nimmakayala

Most artificial intelligence (AI) fails in translation – not from model to metrics but from demo to daily use. Here’s a practical playbook that leaders can use to move AI from prototype to pilot to production with clear gates, simple metrics and accountable ownership.

Last Word

What GenAI Taught Us About the Future of Global Optimization

Are your optimization models nonlinear yet? Recent advances in nonlinear optimization technology are paving the way for the use of full-scale nonlinear models in production, thereby mitigating the need for linearized models.