The award selection committee praised the paper saying "This paper is an impressive blend of theory, algorithm engineering, and computation that gives us a valuable new tool for solving a difficult and important class of problems.*

Vielma received his award at the 2007 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Seattle on November 4 where he gave a talk summarizing the contributions of the paper. This recognition is a significant honor for it is the first year that INFORMS Optimization Society has presented a student prize.

"Scholarly awards of this caliber are always gratifying for the student and his or her advisor(s) and I know that Juan Pablo and Professors Nemhauser and Ahmed are rightly proud of this particular accomplishment,* said Professor Gary Parker, Associate Chair for Graduate Studies. "For me, it also provides strong testimony in justifying the efforts and resources that are needed in order to recruit Ph.D. students like Juan Pablo and to sustain the academic infrastructure in the School that inevitably enhances our ability to compete, fairly, for doctoral student talent at the highest level.*

Prior to joining the PhD program in ISyE, Vielma earned his BS and MS in Mathematical Engineering at the University of Chile. His research interests include linear and nonlinear integer programming and forestry applications of operations research.