#INFORMS2016 as a Reunion Venue for My Former PhD Students

What could be more pleasant than seeing colleagues from around the globe at our great INFORMS conference? Operations researchers have taken over Nashville and it is a delight to be greeted by hellos and hugs at every turn.

Extra special is having so many of my former PhD students from UMass Amherst here, a total of 12, and they are all successful professors. One, Dr. Dmyto Matsypura, traveled all the way from the University of Sydney in Australia for the INFORMS conference. Yesterday, I took a group of them, with one having graduated in 1996, and the most recent one in 2016, to dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory and the smiles in the photo above say it all. INFORMS and Operations Research is about PEOPLE! Thank you, INFORMS, for always bringing us back together every year.