Stanley Zionts - Böcker

Ambitious as the enterprise was, and as demanding as the planning effort promised to be, we set out to organize the IX International Conference on Multiple criteria Decision Making (MCDM) which took place in Fairfax, Virginia, on August 5-8, 1990. We knew it was ambitious because the number of participants expected to attend the conference would approach 160, larger than that of earlier conferences, and because it would include a sizable contingent of 39 participants from the soviet union and Eastern Europe, possibly the largest yet. In many ways, it may be appropriate to say, this international conference presented a microcosm of peoples and new ideas that reflected the extraordinary events that were to take place in Europe and other parts of the world during that summer of 1990. with the theme: "Multiple criteria Decision Making and support at the Interface of Industry, Business and Government" we wanted to focus on new analytical methodologies and management tools, quantitative and qualitative evaluation of decision techniques, the design of experiments to test existing and proposed methods, and the experience gained in the application of these MCDM methods and tools to real-world problems during the last 10-15 years. Many analytical, behavioral, and technological advances are to be made, we feel, at the interface of MCDM Theory, the Behavioral Sciences, operations Research, Systems Engineering, Decision Theory, Mathematical Sciences, and Information Technology. viii The current proliferation of computer-based decision tools offers new challenges and opportunities.

Drawn from a conference honoring Gerald L. Thompson, the pioneer of operations research, this volume brings together some of the latest writings of major figures in the field. The volume is divided into four parts: the first part reviews the career and significance of Thompson, the second concentrates on linear and nonlinear optimization, the third looks at network and integer programming, and the fourth provides examples of applications-oriented research in manufacturing.This volume will be an invaluable resource for all scholars and researchers involved in theory and methodology in operations research and management science.

Drawn from a conference honoring Gerald L. Thompson, the pioneer of operations research, this volume brings together some of the latest writings of major figures in the field. The volume is divided into four parts: the first part reviews the career and significance of Thompson, the second concentrates on linear and nonlinear optimization, the third looks at network and integer programming, and the fourth provides examples of applications-oriented research in manufacturing. This volume will be an invaluable resource for all scholars and researchers involved in theory and methodology in operations research and management science.

The volume contains 43 (out of 185) papers that were presented at the 15th International Conference on Multiple Criteria Decision Making held in Ankara, Turkey July 10-14, 2000. The conference was one of the regular conferences of the International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making, which are held at approximately two-year intervals. The Ankara conference had 195 participants from 38 countries. The volume covers all relevant aspects of the field and presents the latest research results on MCDM.

Roughly nine years ago, the two editors met for the first time in Amsterdam, the Netherlands at the EURO III meeting (organized by the Association of European Operational Research Societies) there. As a result of our initial meeting, the two of us planned and carried out a number of activities in the multiple criteria decision making area, much of it supported by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The latest of these activities was a NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on multiple criteria. decision making and risk analysis using microcomputers. The institute was held in Tarabya, Istanbul, TURKEY, on June 28 - July 8, 1987. We received over 100 applications from professors (and a few graduate students) in 13 countries. Roughly half of them were able to participate. The ASI was a great success! Substantial knowledge transfer and learning took place. In addition to the planned presentations, we had several panels and round table discussions. Though we had planned these in advance, we implemented them to fit the occasion, and also organized a few special sessions on site to respond to participants' interests.