“It is my objective to generate knowledge that affects what the next generations learn,” begins Dimitris Bertsimas, former co-director of the MIT ORC and the Institute’s Boeing Leaders for Global Operations Professor of Management. “Is it impactful? That’s how I judge what is important.”
It is this philosophy of teaching and researching that has driven Bertsimas for decades. His current research focuses on three areas:
For Retsef Levi, the J. Spencer Standish (1945) Professor of Operations Management at MIT, one of the most significant features of the ORC is its intense focus on research—from the very start.
A member of the ORC since 2006, Levi stresses the importance of the unique, hands-on work students are able to do in the Center, often in collaboration with industry partners, like hospitals and government agencies.
Vivek Farias did not seek out a career in operations research (OR); instead, the electrical engineer “fell into” the field while in graduate school, when he needed to use OR tools to conduct his research.
“I found more and more that OR just happened to be a name for a bunch of things that I thought were very valuable,” he recalls. “Here’s a set of tools, ideas, and problems that are broadly applicable to the world. I found that notion really exciting.”
“The ORC brings together leading researchers and exceptionally talented students under the same umbrella,” describes Rahul Mazumder, assistant professor of operations research and statistics at MIT. “They [are] using innovative scientific approaches to tackle some of the most complex problems in the real world.”
“We believe in having an impact,” explains Georgia Perakis, the William F. Pounds Professor of Management and Codirector of the Operations Research Center at MIT. “That’s a distinguishing feature of the research we do here at the ORC … and it’s what motivates me as a professor.”
Indeed, since joining the MIT faculty in 1998, Perakis has spearheaded many significant projects in operations research—in areas ranging from energy to retail among others.
