The ORC has had a special place within MIT for many decades. As an interdepartmental center, it has functioned as a focal point, bringing together faculty from different parts of MIT, with interests in optimization, stochastic models, and applications in many different domains. It has attracted a steady stream of outstanding students who have gone off to successful careers, and with whom it has been a pleasure to interact. Personally, I have very much enjoyed research on queueing networks and other stochastic models, as well as the opportunity to co-supervise students from different departments.