At the EURO Conference in Copenhagen in July 2024, I was honored to present a talk entitled “Tackling hard problems: On the evolution of operations research” in the “Moments in the history or OR” stream organized by Roberto Rossi and Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber. I was delighted to give this talk, which I organized around several of the articles I wrote in ORMS Today and on this blog during my term as INFORMS President in 2023. These articles are listed at the end of this post along with a list of the sources I drew upon. I am also sharing my slides.

My articles 1. L. Albert (2020). Firsts in operations research. Punk Rock Operations Research blog post, Available at: https://punkrockor.com/2020/02/17/firsts-in-operations-research/ 2. L. Albert (2022). Operations research was declared dead in 1979. Punk Rock Operations Research blog post, Available at: https://punkrockor.com/2022/04/07/operations-research-was-declared-dead-in-1979/ 3. L. Albert (2023a). 10 facts about the origin of operations research. ORMS Today, Available at: https://pubsonline.informs.org/do/10.1287/orms.2023.03.04/full 4. L. Albert (2023b). On George Dantzig, Good Will Hunting, and Tackling Hard Problems. Punk Rock Operations Research blog post, Available at: https://punkrockor.com/2023/06/05/on-george-dantzig-good-will-hunting-and-tackling-hard-problems/ 5. L. Albert (2023c). Operations Research: What is it?. Punk Rock Operations Research blog post, Available at: https://punkrockor.com/2023/07/31/operations-research-what-is-it/ 6. L. Albert (2023d). So your mother wanted you to be a doctor, but a PhD in OR? Post on LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7132404427998597120/

References1. Florence N. Trefethen (1954). “A History of Operations Research,” in Joseph F. McCloskey and Florence N. Trefethen (eds.), Operations Research for Management, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 3-35. 2. Budiansky, S. (2013). Blackett’s War: The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-Boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare Warfare. Vintage. 3. INFORMS. Articles and resources about the origins of operations research: https://www.informs.org/Explore/History-of-O.R.-Excellence/Bibliographies/The-Origins-of-OR 4. P.M. Morse (1952). Operations research – what is it? Journal of Applied Physics 23(2), 165-172. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1702167 5. Hall Jr, J. R., & Hess, S. W. (1978). OR/MS: Dead or dying? RX for survival. Interfaces, 8(3), 42-44. https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.8.3.42 6. Ackoff, R. L. (1979). The future of operational research is past. Journal of the operational research society, 30(2), 93-104. https://doi.org/10.2307/3009290 7. Herbert Halbrecht, (1972). So your mother wanted you to be a doctor, but a PhD in OR? Interfaces, 2(2), pp. 44-49. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25058872