Winners of John Von Neumann Theory Prize in Operations Research
The John von Neumann Theory Prize of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is awarded annually to an individual (or sometimes a group) who has made fundamental and sustained contributions to theory in operations research and the management sciences.
Operations Research
Operations research (OR) is a discipline that deals with the application of advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions.
The John von Neumann Theory Prize is named after mathematician John von Neumann and is awarded for a body of work, rather than a single piece. The Prize was intended to reflect contributions that have stood the test of time. The criteria include significance, innovation, depth, and scientific excellence. The award that has been awarded since 1975, is $5,000, a medallion and a citation.
Here you will get familiar with the names of Laureates of Nobel Prize in Operations research, known as The John von Neumann Theory Prize.
In the previous blog posts, we introduced the names of Laureates of Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences between 1969 and 2019.
List of Laureates
| Year | Laureates | Country | Key Contribution |
| 1975 | George B. Dantzig | USA | For his work on linear programming |
| 1976 | Richard Bellman | USA | For his seminal contributions to control theory and its application to real-world problems |
| 1977 | Felix Pollaczek | Austrian-French | for the Pollaczek–Khinchine formula in queueing theory (1930), and the Pollaczek polynomials |
| 1978 | John F. Nash
Carlton E. Lemke
|
USA
USA |
For his discovery of non-cooperative equilibria, now called Nash Equilibria
For constructing an algorithm for finding Nash equilibria the case of finite two-person games |
| 1979 | David Blackwell | USA | For contributions to game theory, probability theory, information theory, and Bayesian statistics |
| 1980 | David Gale
Harold W. Kuhn
Albert W. Tucker |
USA
USA
Canada |
For his contributions to the fields of mathematical economics, game theory, and convex analysis
For the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions, for Kuhn’s theorem, for developing Kuhn poker as well as the description of the Hungarian method for the assignment problem.
For his contributions in topology, game theory, and non-linear programming |
| 1981 | Lloyd Shapley | USA | For his contributions to the fields of mathematical economics and especially game theory |
| 1982 | Abraham Charnes
William W. Cooper
Richard J. Duffin |
USA
USA
USA |
His works influenced the development of Data envelopment analysis (DEA) method
Known as a father of management science and as “Mr. Linear Programming”
For his contributions to electrical transmission theory and to the development of geometric programming and other areas within operations research |
| 1983 | Herbert Scarf | USA | Among his notable works is a seminal paper in cooperative game |
| 1984 | Ralph Gomory | USA | Creation of new areas of applied mathematics |
| 1985 | Jack Edmonds | USA | Known for the blossom algorithm, making contributions to the field of combinatorial optimization, among other things. |
| 1986 | Kenneth J. Arrow | USA | His most significant works are his contributions to social choice theory, notably “Arrow’s impossibility theorem”, and his work on general equilibrium analysis. |
| 1987 | Samuel Karlin | USA | For his contributions to the fields of mathematical economics, bioinformatics, game theory, evolutionary theory, biomolecular sequence analysis, and total positivity. |
| 1988 | Herbert A. Simon | USA | contributions to areas such as mathematical economics including theorem, human rationality, a behavioural study of firms, the theory of casual ordering, and the analysis of the parameter identification problem in econometrics |
| 1989 | Harry M. Markowitz | USA | For his contributions in the theory of three fields: portfolio theory; sparse matrix methods; and simulation language programming (SIMSCRIPT). |
| 1990 | Richard Karp | USA | Made many important discoveries in computer science, combinatorial algorithms, and operations research. His major current research interests include bioinformatics. |
| 1991 | Richard E. Barlow
Frank Proschan
|
USA
USA |
Founder of modern reliability theory. He introduced the concept of “Total Time on Test” processes in reliability theory. He and Proschan co-wrote the book Mathematical Theory of Reliability.
|
| 1992 | Alan J. Hoffman
Philip Wolfe |
USA
USA |
He has contributed to combinatorial optimization and the eigenvalue theory of graphs.
Hoffman and Robert Singleton constructed the Hoffman–Singleton graph, which is the unique Moore graph of degree 7 and diameter 2. |
| 1993 | Robert Herman | USA | Best known for his work with Ralph Alpher in 1948-50, on estimating the temperature of cosmic microwave background radiation from the Big Bang explosion |
| 1994 | Lajos Takacs | Hungary | Known for his contributions to probability theory and in particular, queueing theory. He wrote over two hundred scientific papers and six books. |
| 1995 | Egon Balas | Romania | For his fundamental work in developing integer and disjunctive programming |
| 1996 | Peter C. Fishburn | USA | Known as a pioneer in the field of decision-making processes |
| 1997 | Peter Whittle | New Zealand | For his outstanding contributions to the theory of operations research and management science |
| 1998 | Fred W. Glover | USA | For his contributions to the area of metaheuristics (a name he coined) and for launching the computer-based optimization methodology of Tabu search |
| 1999 | R. Tyrrell Rockafellar | USA | For his contributions to optimization theory and related fields of analysis and combinatorics. |
| 2000 | Ellis L. Johnson
Manfred W. Padberg |
USA
Germany |
For his fundamental contributions to integer programming and combinatorial optimization
Worked with linear and combinatorial optimization |
| 2001 | Ward Whitt | USA | For his contributions to queueing theory, applied probability and stochastic modelling |
| 2002 | Donald L. Iglehart
Cyrus Derman |
USA
USA |
For their fundamental contributions to performance analysis and optimization of stochastic systems |
| 2003 | Arkadi Nemirovski
Michael J. Todd |
USA
USA |
For their seminal and profound contributions in continuous optimization. |
| 2004 | J. Michael Harrison | USA | For his profound contributions to two major areas of operations research and management science: stochastic networks and mathematical finance |
| 2005 | Robert J. Aumann
|
Israeli-American | In recognition of his fundamental contributions to game theory and related areas |
| 2006 | Martin Grötschel
László Lovász
Alexander Schrijver |
Germany
Hungary
The Netherlands |
For their fundamental path-breaking work in combinatorial optimization |
| 2007 | Arthur F. Veinott, Jr. | USA | For his profound contributions to three major areas of operations research and management science: inventory theory, dynamic programming and lattice programming. |
| 2008 | Frank Kelly | UK | Kelly’s research interests are in random processes, networks and optimization, especially in very large-scale systems such as telecommunication or transportation networks. |
| 2009 | Yurii Nesterov
Yinyu Ye |
Russia
Chinese-American |
Nesterov is most famous for his work in convex optimization, including his 2004 book. His main novel contribution is an accelerated version of gradient descent that converges considerably faster than ordinary gradient descent
He is a specialist in interior-point methods, especially in convex minimization and linear programming. He is a professor of Management Science and Engineering and Kwoh-Ting Li Chair Professor of Engineering at Stanford University. |
| 2010 | Søren Asmussen
Peter W. Glynn |
Denmark
USA |
For fundamental contributions to the many different areas of applied probability, including the theory of heavy tails, rare-event asymptotics and related simulation methods, matrix-geometric modelling, Markov processes, and regeneration. |
| 2011 | Gérard Cornuéjols | USA | For his fundamental and broad contributions to discrete optimization including his deep research on balanced and ideal matrices, perfect graphs and cutting planes for mixed-integer optimization. |
| 2012 | George Nemhauser
Laurence Wolsey |
USA
UK |
He is one of the co-inventors of the branch and price method for solving integer linear programs. He also contributed important early studies of approximation algorithms for facility location problems and for submodular optimization.
Wolsey has made seminal contributions in duality theory for integer programming, submodular optimization, the group-theoretic approach and polyhedral analysis of fixed-charge network flow and production planning models |
| 2013 | Michel Balinski | Switzerland | He was known for his work in optimization (combinatorial, linear, nonlinear), convex polyhedra, stable matching, and the theory and practice of electoral systems, jury decision, and social choice. |
| 2014 | Nimrod Megiddo | Israel | For fundamental contributions across a broad range of areas of operations research and management science, most notably in linear programming, combinatorial optimization, and algorithmic game theory.
|
| 2015 | Vašek Chvátal
Jean Bernard Lasserre
|
Canada
|
For seminal and profound contributions to the theoretical foundations of optimization. |
| 2016 | Martin I. Reiman
Ruth J. Williams |
For seminal research contributions over the past several decades, to the theory and applications of “stochastic networks/systems” and their “heavy traffic approximations.”
|
|
| 2017 | Donald Goldfarb
Jorge Nocedal |
For seminal contributions to the theory and applications of nonlinear optimization over the past several decades. | |
| 2018 | Dimitri Bertsekas
John Tsitsiklis |
USA
USA |
For contributions to Parallel and Distributed Computation as well as Neurodynamic Programming. |
| 2019 | Dimitris Bertsimas
Jong-Shi Pang |
USA
USA |
For having made fundamental, sustained contributions to theory in operations research and the management sciences.
|
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