{"395471":{"#nid":"395471","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Nemhauser Honored with Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EGeorge Nemhauser is widely considered to be one of the world\u2019s top optimization researchers, and he has received the official recognition to match: He is the A. Russell Chandler III Chair and Institute Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial \u0026amp; Systems Engineering (ISyE), recipient of the inaugural Khachiyan Prize for lifetime contributions to the field, and the only person to twice receive the Lanchester Prize for best publication in operations research. He is also the first sitting professor at Georgia Tech to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Now, he is receiving the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003E\u201cAlmost all the awards I have received have been from my profession,\u201d Nemhauser said. \u201cThis is \u003Cem\u003Ethe\u003C\/em\u003E Georgia Tech award. This means a lot to me because it connects directly to Georgia Tech.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003EThe Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award recognizes outstanding achievement in teaching, research, and service. It is the highest award given to a faculty member. The award, instituted in 1984 by the Class of 1934 in observance of its 50th reunion, is presented to an active professor who has made significant, long-term contributions \u2014 contributions that would have brought widespread recognition to the professor, to his or her school, and to the Institute.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003ELetters of support for Nemhauser\u2019s nomination came from colleagues and former students around the world.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003E\u201cMy stimulation and the fact that I can still be working and having lots of fun \u2014 as old as I am \u2014 is because of what these people give to me,\u201d said the 77-year-old. \u201cI\u2019m not this great humanitarian, unselfish guy by any means. It\u2019s completely a two-way deal. When I get a chance to work with these young people, to me, that\u2019s the greatest pleasure in life. That\u2019s always been the best thing for me: to work one-on-one or with a small number of undergraduate and graduate students and young faculty. Those are the people who keep me on my toes.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch5 class=\u0022p6\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFrom Center Field to Operations Research\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h5\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003EGrowing up in New York, Nemhauser dreamed of playing center field for the Yankees. He estimated that by the time he was ready for the position, Joe DiMaggio would be retiring. That didn\u2019t happen. He was a teen when DiMaggio retired, and Mickey Mantle took the position.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003E \u201cI played all sports \u2014 with lots of effort and very limited ability. I did not have talent,\u201d Nemhauser laughed. \u201cBut I love math. I was the kid who could compute the other kids\u2019 batting average. I wasn\u2019t the best player, but if they wanted to know their batting average \u2014 see George.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003E When it was time to head to college, Nemhauser was leaning toward majoring in math, but his mother encouraged him to study engineering. It was during a summer internship that he first learned about optimization and game theory, and he was fascinated. He started graduate school in chemical engineering, but switched to operations research as the field was just starting academically.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003E \u201cMan, was I lucky,\u201d he said. \u201cAny success like this \u2014 honestly, so much of it is luck: being in the right place at the right time. I believe that 100 percent.\u201d \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch5 class=\u0022p6\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat is Optimization?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h5\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003E\u201cOptimization is about decision making. Whether it\u2019s a problem in business or a problem related to health or medicine, the notion is: \u2018How can we use optimization to make better decisions?\u2019\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003E \u201cMost of these optimization problems have a huge number of variables and constraints. The contribution from our optimization group here at Georgia Tech \u2014 which, by the way is the best optimization group in the world, independent of me \u2014 is that we build the algorithms that allow [for] efficient computations for problems with thousands of variables.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003E Nemhauser\u2019s company, the Sports Scheduling Group, schedules games for the ACC, the SEC, the Big 10, and Major League Baseball.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003E \u201cScheduling Major League Baseball is a big optimization problem. You have all of these games to schedule, and a lot of it is driven by television contracts, which is where the revenue comes from. If you don\u2019t get the right games at the right time \u2014 that Saturday or Sunday afternoon game between the Yankees and the Red Sox \u2014 the contracts won\u2019t be what they would be otherwise.\u201d \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch5 class=\u0022p6\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHaving Fun\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h5\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003EHaving started teaching in 1961, Nemhauser has advised 65 doctoral students. Many of them are now on the faculty at MIT, Chicago, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, and other top universities around the world. One of the biggest changes he\u2019s noticed over the 54 years he\u2019s had dealings with graduate students is the interaction with them.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003E\u201cI\u2019ve always tried to eliminate formality. I hate formality. I\u2019m a very, very casual person,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I started, there was more formality. To get a graduate student to call me \u2018George\u2019 was hard. But I needed to do that from the get-go, so I spent time trying to break down the formality that existed between faculty and students. Now, I think that problem has gone away. Things are much more casual.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003EIn keeping with his casual approach, Nemhauser says he doesn\u2019t have a specific plan for the future.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003E\u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s next,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I can keep my health and I\u2019m having fun\u2026 \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003E\u201cI\u2019ve never made long-term plans. I don\u2019t believe in them,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve never had a five-year-plan in my whole life,\u201d he said. \u201cA one-year-plan? That\u2019s good.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p5\u0022\u003E\u201cMy basic philosophy is: No. 1 \u2014 have fun in what you\u2019re doing. That, to me, beats it all.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"ISyE Professor Hits Home Run with Top Honor"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorge Nemhauser, widely considered to be one of the world\u2019s top optimization researchers, is receiving the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"George Nemhauser, widely considered to be one of the world\u2019s top optimization researchers, is receiving the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award."}],"uid":"27713","created_gmt":"2015-04-13 08:22:55","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:58","author":"Victor Rogers","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-04-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-04-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"62896":{"id":"62896","type":"image","title":"George Nemhauser","body":null,"created":"1449176409","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:00:09","changed":"1475894549","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:29","alt":"George Nemhauser","file":{"fid":"191599","name":"Nemhauser_001.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Nemhauser_001_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Nemhauser_001_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1653316,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Nemhauser_001_0.jpg?itok=De3UiDk6"}},"395481":{"id":"395481","type":"image","title":"George Nemhauser","body":null,"created":"1449246346","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:25:46","changed":"1475895112","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:51:52","alt":"George Nemhauser","file":{"fid":"75660","name":"nemhauser_back.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/nemhauser_back.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/nemhauser_back.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":204830,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/nemhauser_back.jpg?itok=2Vm08VzC"}}},"media_ids":["62896","395481"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.sports-scheduling.com\/","title":"The Sports Scheduling Group"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.isye.gatech.edu\/","title":"Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering"}],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"20421","name":"1934 Distinguished Professor Award"},{"id":"426","name":"isye"},{"id":"2140","name":"Nemhauser"},{"id":"1377","name":"optimization"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:victor.rogers@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EVictor Rogers\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EInstitute Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6398\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["victor.rogers@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}