As we near the 2007 mark, I wanted to share some highlights and accomplishments of our Center Associates and Friends from the past year with you. This past year has certainly been an amazing one and I thank you for your support!

With best wishes to everyone for 2007!

Anna Nagurney
Center Director

Congratulations to Center Associates!

2006 was a year with many achievements, attained through hard work and terrific esprit de corps!

Congratulations to Professor Jose M. Cruz, of the School of Business at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, for the publication of his paper, joint with Tina Wakolbinger and Professor Anna Nagurney, entitled, "Financial Engineering of the Integration of Global Supply Chain Networks and Social Networks with Risk Management," in volume 53 (2006) of the journal "Naval Research Logistics." Also, congratulations to Professor Cruz upon the acceptance of his paper on corporate social responsibility by the journal "European Journal of Operational Research!"

Congratulations to Center Associate, Professor Patrizia Daniele of the University of Catania, Italy, who had her book, "Dynamic Networks and Evolutionary Variational Inequalities," published in 2006 by Edward Elgar Publishing! Professor Daniele was also a Visiting Scholar in the Spring of 2006 in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University and collaborated with Professor Anna Nagurney, who was a 2005-2006 Science Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard. They were joined, for part of the time, by Professor Monica-Gabriela Cojocaru of the University of Guelph in Canada.

Bravo to Professor June Dong of SUNY Oswego, who has been awarded the SUNY (State University of New York) President's Award for Creative and Scholarly Activity for 2006! This is an award across the entire State University System and an amazing recognition for her research and scholarly contributions! Professor Dong received the award at commencement ceremonies in December, 2006.

Congratulations to doctoral students, Zugang Liu and Trisha Woolley, on the publication of their paper, co-authored with Professor Nagurney, "Optimal Endogenous Carbon Taxes for Electric Power Supply Chains with Power Plants," that appears in "Mathematical and Computer Modelling," volume 44 (2006), pp. 899-916. In addition, their paper, also co-authored with Professor Nagurney, entitled, "Sustainable Supply Chain Networks and Transportation," will be published in the inaugural issue of the new journal "International Journal of Sustainable Transportation" in 2007. Congratulations also to Zugang Liu for
being selected and taking part in the Future Academicians Colloquium preceding the 2006 Annual INFORMS Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA in November, 2006! Both Trisha and Leo, as well as Tina Wakolbinger, gave presentations at the INFORMS Annual Meeting, as did Center Associate, Dr. Fuminori Toyasaki of McGill University, and Professor Jose M. Cruz.

Congratulations to doctoral student, Qiang "Patrick" Qiang, for helping to host, along with other Doctoral Student Center Associates, Emmanuel Agyei, Zugang Liu, Tina Wakolbinger, and Trisha Woolley, the visit of Professor Werner Rothengatter from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, as part of the UMass Exchange with universities in Germany. The visit was funded through the UMass President's office. The doctoral student associates gave excellent presentations to Professor Rothengatter in the form of a mini-workshop. Patrick was elected Vice President of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter and Trisha is serving as the Speaker Series Coordinator for 2006-2007.
In Fall 2006, we were honored to have Dr. Robin Lougee-Heimer of IBM, Professor Bill Hogan of Harvard, Professor Cynthia Barnhart of MIT, Dr. Les Servi of MIT/Lincoln Labs, and Professors Andrew McCallum and Nate Whitaker of UMass Amherst speak in the Series!

Congratulations to Dr. Stavros Siokos, Managing Director of Citigroup in London, for his exceptional success in the financial services industry and for giving an outstanding seminar, "Financial Engineering - A Sell Side Perspective,"  on November 30, 2006, at the Isenberg School of Management, UMass Amherst, as a "Distinguished Alum!"

Congratulations to Tina Wakolbinger, who successfully defended her doctoral dissertation proposal, "A Dynamic Theory for the Integration of Social and Economic Networks with Applications to Supply Chain and Financial Networks," in May, 2006. In November 2006, Tina's contributions to the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter were acknowledged with her receipt of the Judith Liebman Award for her service to the Chapter. Tina not only served as the President of the Chapter from 2004-2005 but also as the Speaker Series Coordinator from 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. Tina received the award on November 7, 2006, at the INFORMS Annual Meeting, held in Pittsburgh, PA.

Congratulations to Professor Ding Zhang of SUNY Oswego, who has been appointed the MBA Director at the School of Business there!

Kudos to Friends of the Center!

Congratulations to Professor Mark S. Daskin of Northwestern University for completing his term as the President of INFORMS! Under his leadership, INFORMS had the best attendance at its Annual Meeting (in Pittsburgh in November, 2006), and President Daskin had the bold vision to appoint the Ad-Hoc Committee on Diversity, which Professor Nagurney chaired. Professor Daskin's contributions to INFORMS as a society have been extraordinary.

Bravo to Professor Erricos Kontoghiorghes and Cristian Gatu for the publication of their edited volume, "Optimisation, Econometric and Financial Analysis," just published  by Springer!

Kudos to Professor Antonino Maugeri of the University of Catania, Italy, for co-hosting the 44th Workshop on Variational Analysis and PDEs in Erice, Sicily in July 2006! It was a fantastic workshop and Center Associates Professors Patrizia Daniele, Monica-Gabriela Cojocaru, and Professor Anna Nagurney also took part and gave invited talks as did, Friend of the Center, Professor Panos Pardalos.

Congratulations to Professor David Parkes of Harvard University for the success of the Exploratory Seminar on Dynamic Networks, held at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, October 20-21, 2006. It was a very stimulating and intellectually rewarding seminar and the Center Associates and Center Director truly enjoyed the experience! Congratulations also for co-authoring the paper with Professors Daniele and Nagurney, "The Internet, Evolutionary Variational Inequalities, and the Time-Dependent Braess Paradox," which is in press in the journal, "Computational Management Science!"

Kudos to Professor Panos Pardalos of the University of Florida, Gainesville, for being elected an INFORMS Fellow in 2006! We salute your boundless energy and scientific contributions!

Kudos to Professor Berc Rustem of Imperial College, London, who was distinctly honored in 2006 with a special issue of the journal, "Computational Economics," dedicated in his honor. The volume was presented to Professor Rustem at the CEF 2006 Conference, held in Limassol, Cyprus in June 2006.

Congratulations to Professor Nathaniel "Nate" Whitaker of the Department of Mathematics/Statistics at UMass Amherst for receiving the President's Award for Public Service on December 8, 2006 from President Jack Wilson in ceremonies in Boston, MA. Professor Whitaker was recognized for his extensive contributions in mentoring minority students in mathematics.

Bravo, bravo, bravissimo to Professor Daoli Zhu of Fudan University in Shanghai, China, for being awarded the Fudan Premium Fund Prize in Management in 2006 for his extraordinary contributions to Management Science in China (and beyond)! Professor Nagurney was honored to serve on the prize selection committee in August 2006 in Shanghai.

January 2006 Congratulations and Kudos!