Towards the end of each year, the Center Director, Professor Anna Nagurney, highlights notable achievements of the year. Below is a wrapup for 2011.

This year we marked the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the center, quite the milestone.

Center Associate Professor Tina Wakolbinger assumed her new position as a Full Professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business on May 15, 2011, where she is now the Professor of Supply Chain Services and Networks. In addition, since arriving at her new university, Dr. Wakolbinger has become the Head of the Research Institute for Supply Chain Management and is also the Deputy Head of the Institute for Transport and Logistics Management there. She has had a chapter on humanitarian financial funds, co-authored with Professor Fuminori Toyasaki of York University, published in a book and has another paper on the topic (also with Dr. Toyasaki) accepted for publication in the Annals of Operations Research.

Center Associate Dr. Dmytro Matsypura of the University of Sydney in Australia was recognized for his teaching and mentoring with the Wayne Lonergan Outstanding Teaching Award (Early Career) from the School of Business at the University of Sydney. In addition, he has had a paper with Professor Timkovsky accepted for publication in Networks.

Center Associate Professor Trisha Woolley Anderson received the John Maddux, Jr. Faculty Award from Texas Wesleyan University, where she teaches at its Business School. The award consists of an elegant glass trophy with $1500. It is named after the Chair of the Board of Trustees at Texas Wesleyan. Stated on the award, In recognition for playing a supportive, motivational, and inspirational role in the lives of students at Texas Wesleyan University.

The IEEE Conference on Supernetworks and System Management took place at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST), May 29-30, 2011, in China and was a big success. The Conference Chairs were Center Associate Professor June Dong of the State University of New York at Oswego and Professor Xu Fu-Yuan of USST with Professor Anna Nagurney serving as an Honorary Co-Chair. Center Associate Professor Patrick Qiang of the Pennsylvania State University Great Valley was one of the Organization Committee Chairs. Professor June Dong gave a plenary talk and Center Associate doctoral student Min Yu delivered Professor Anna Nagurney's plenary speech and also presented a co-authored paper. A special edited journal volume on supernetworks as well as a Proceedings documented the success of the conference.

Two Center Associate doctoral students, Min Yu and Amir H. Masoumi, successfully defended their dissertation proposals. Min is working on time-sensitive supply chains with applications to critical needs products, fast fashion, and food. Amir is working on perishable supply chains in healthcare. He has had two papers accepted for publication this year on blood supply chains, one of which was co-authored with Min and Nagurney and the other one with Nagurney. Min was recognized this past year with an Outstanding Doctoral Student Researcher Award from the Isenberg School of Management. In addition, she was selected and took part in the POMS, INFORMS, and DSI doctoral colloquia.

Center Associates Professors Zugang Liu, Jose M. Cruz, and Patrick Qiang have had an incredibly productive year research-wise. Professor Liu has had papers accepted or published, several co-authored with Nagurney, in the Annals of Operations Research, Omega, and the Journal of Financial Decision Making. Along with Cruz, he has had papers accepted in the European Journal of Operational Research and Decision Support Systems.

Professor Qiang has had a paper on closed loop supply chains, joint with Center Associates Professors Trisha Anderson, Ke "Grace" Ke, and June Dong, accepted for publication in Omega and has also had a paper published in the Annals of Regional Science with Min Yu and Anna Nagurney and has another paper in press, co-authored with Nagurney, in the International Transactions in Operations Research.

Center Associate Professor Ladimer S. Nagurney had a paper co-authored with Anna Nagurney published in Transportation Research E on predator-prey networks and natures supply chains. They continue to collaborate on medical nuclear supply chains and presented their joint work at the Regional Science Association Conference in Miami, Florida in November, and at a physics conference at UMass Amherst in November, as well as, at the INTRIM Conference in Montreal, Canada in August.

Congratulations to Center Associate doctoral student Dong "Michelle" Li who this year was elected President of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter. She, along with Amir Masoumi and Min Yu, as well as other chapter members and officers, helped tremendously with the First Northeast Regional INFORMS Conference that took place in May 2011 at UMass Amherst. The chapter was recognized for its outstanding activities with the Magna Cum Laude award at the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina in November 2011. This year, with Professor Anna Nagurney's help, the chapter started a "Meet the Executive" series, which has brought executives from the automotive, fashion, and a nongovernmental organization to speak at the Isenberg School.

The Annual INFORMS Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina was a wonderful reunion venue for many of the Center Associates with Dr. Padma Ramanujam of SAS, Professors Cruz, Wakolbinger, Liu, Qiang, Matsypura, Nagurney and Min Yu and Amir H. Masoumi all in attendance.

Professor Anna Nagurney is grateful to all of her wonderful hosts at such speaking venues as the Management Sciences Group at the University of Waterloo in Canada, the INTRIM conference at McGill University in Montreal, Canada (as well as the Management Sciences group there), the SAMSI Workshop in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the NetGCoop conference in Paris, France. The hospitality was most appreciated. She also appreciates the recognition that she received with the 2011 Jane F. Garvey Transportation Leadership Award.

In 2011, Professor Anna Nagurney became the Co-PI on a 3 year National Science Foundation grant, Innovations Through Choice. The PI is Professor Tilman Wolf of the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst.

Please visit the various pages on the supernetworks website for many of our recent publications as well as for photos of our events and activities, newsletter, and media coverage.

December 2010 Congratulations and Kudos!

December 2009 Congratulations and Kudos!

December 2007 Congratulations and Kudos!
 
December 2006 Congratulations and Kudos!

January 2006 Congratulations and Kudos!