By Dale M. Kuska

Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Distinguished Professor of Operations Research (OR) Dr. Gerald G. Brown accomplished something no other OR practitioner ever has … He was awarded both the 2016 INFORMS President's Award, and the 2016 INFORMS Steinhardt Prize, during the organization's annual meeting. Both awards recognize Brown's long career of honored and impactful contributions to the practice of operations research and beyond.

"When I received the notice of the first award, I felt like I had been struck by lightning. But when the second came, it was unbelievable, just an unbelievable sequence of events," Brown noted proudly.

"This has been very humbling," he continued. "The past winners of this award include some of the most accomplished people in our field, both in military operations research, and in operations research in general."

The INFORMS President's Award is presented in recognition of a lifetime of relevant work that advances the general welfare of society at large.

"In operations research, we're about solving problems," Brown said. "DOD is probably the most complex, technical organization on the planet, but with that comes lots of problems.

"We're not here to work mechanical engineering, or electrical engineering problems," he continued. "But if it involves the application of these technologies into warfare, or the planning for their procurement, or the logistics of their movement, storage and similar, well that is what we do. It just turns out that the sort of problems that we address in operations research are everywhere."

While Brown is the first NPS faculty member to win the President's Award, the Steinhardt Prize has been earned by several of his NPS colleagues, something he says reflects the caliber of the university's OR program.

"This is one of the finest OR programs on the planet," he said, matter of fact. "In some ways, we're the Navy's best kept secret, I think. We've been fortunate to make some great junior faculty hires, and we've also been very fortunate to have an excellent degree sponsor in OPNAV N81. And we have been additionally very fortunate to have some of our experienced officers, and past graduates, come back to be military faculty here. All of this is of synergistic benefit to the Navy."

For more information on Brown's prestigious awards, check out the full story on NPS.edu.