The proposed academic boycott of Israel often saps our energy and diverts our attention from the continuing academic achievements of Israeli professors and researchers. To re-focus on good news, I am pleased to report the first of what I hope will be many similar congratulatory notices from SPME members recognizing notable academic or societal awards and prizes bestowed upon our Israeli colleagues. Whenever one of your Israeli colleagues is so recognized, please let us know!
My academic field is operations research (OR) — the science of decision-making and the mathematics of the underlying models — and it therefore gives me particular pleasure to report that the 2007 winner of the top European award in this field, the EURO Gold Medal (awarded by the Association of European Operational Research Societies), is Prof. Aharon (Ronny) Ben-Tal of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Regarding this award, as stated earlier, the EURO Gold Medal is the highest distinction within OR in Europe. It is conferred on a prominent person or institution for outstanding contributions to the science of Operational Research. The award is officially bestowed in conjunction with a EURO Conference, if there is a suitable candidate. Ronny received his award on July 9 at the EURO meeting in Prague for his seminal contributions to the theory and application of nonlinear and robust optimization methods. You can read more about Ronny and his research at
Congratulations to Prof. Ronny Ben-Tal!
Best wishes,
Edward H. Kaplan, Ph.D.
William N. and Marie A. Beach Professor of Management Sciences
Professor of Public Health
Professor of Engineering
Yale School of Management
Box 208200
New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8200
Phone: 203-432-6031
FAX: 203-432-9995
e-mail: edward.kaplan@yale.edu
