Lecture: The Postwar Establishment of Operations Research in Academics and Industry
Spring 2005 Operations Research / Management Science Seminar Series Presents:
William Thomas
Department of History of Science
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
"The Postwar Establishment of OR in Academics and Industry"
Abstract: This talk presents a review of existing research on the postwar spread of OR as well as my most current research. In it, I examine how early advocates for the postwar spread of OR crystallized their wartime experience into their own work. I will focus primarily upon the establishment of an OR curriculum at MIT, particularly regarding the efforts of the OR pioneer Philip Morse. What we can see from this particular slice of the history is a shift in OR from an ill-defined activity dominated by its wartime heritage to a field with an independent peacetime identity.
This series is organized by the UMass Amherst Student Chapter of INFORMS. Support for this series is provided by the Isenberg School of Management, the Department of Finance and Operations Management, INFORMS and the John F. Smith Memorial Fund.
