The
Association of
European Operational Research Societies
within IFORS
|
|
The
Association of |
What is EURO ?
EURO is the 'Association of European Operational Research Societies' within IFORS, the 'International Federation of Operational Research Societies'. It is a 'non profit' association domiciled in Fribourg, Switzerland. Its affairs are regulated by a Council consisting of representatives/alternates of all its members and an Executive Committee which constitutes its board of directors. Its aim is to promote Operational Research throughout Europe.
The members of EURO are normally full members of IFORS and comprise the national OR societies of countries located within or nearby (in a broad sense) Europe. Each member is represented in the EURO Council by two representatives, one of whom votes, if required. Council meetings are held annually, normally in conjunction with the EURO-k conferences.
Executive Committee 2002
o President : Philippe Vincke (Belgium)
o President Elect: Laureane Escudero (Spain)
o Vice-President 1 : Zilla Sinuany-Stern (Israel)
o Vice-President 2 : Rainer Burkard (Austria)
o Secretary : Alexis Tsoukias (France)
o Treasurer : Marino Widmer (Switzerland)
EURO XIX in Istanbul (July 6-10, 2003)
Turkey will receive this joint conference with INFORMS. The chairman of the programme committee will be Professor Wäscher (Germany).
EURO XX in Greece (July 2004)
Two propositions were presented to the last Council. The first by Yannis Siskos on behalf of the Hellenic OR Society and the second by Peter Fiala on behalf of the Czech OR society, both for July 2004. A ballot was organised and the greek proposal has been retained (13 to 8). The registration fee issue was discussed and a substantial reduction was demanded. The possibility to compose different menus of fees is envisaged.
Africa Project EURO
has decided to promote and support initiatives concerning OR in Africa.
EURO Gold Medal 2001
Part of the report from PAOLO TOTH, DEIS, University of Bologna, Chair of the 2001 EURO Gold Medal Jury:
It is really a pleasure for me to announce that the 2001 EURO Gold Medal was conferred to Professor EGON BALAS (GSIA, Carnegie Mellon University,Pittsburgh). The award was delivered during the Opening Session at the EURO XVIII Conference, Rotterdam, July 9 - 11, 2001.
A short summary of the scientific activity of Egon Balas follows. He started his work in Operational Research in Romania. After a career as an economist and a politician, he turned to Linear and Integer Programming. His famous paper on the additive algorithm for 0-1 Linear Programming was one of the first basic European contributions to Combinatorial Optimization. After he had left Romania, he obtained a doctoral degree in Economics in Brussels and one in Mathematics in Paris. Ever since, he continued to collaborate with European researchers and to attend the European Operational Research conferences. His most significant contribution is probably his extensive workon Disjunctive Programming. He was also one of the pioneers in the study of the facial structure of Integer Polytopes for NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems. He has published more than 100 papers in the top level international journals in Operational Research, Management Science and Mathematical Programming. He published papers with more than 50 different co-authors (and I had the honour to be one of them!). He was the winner of the prestigious John von Neumann Theory Prize in April 1995. I wish also to point out that Egon Balas is not only a model for his exceptional research activity, but also a model for his whole life. Indeed, he always fighted against all the tyrannies of the last century, and he paid, with long years of hard jail, his love for freedom. I wish to conclude this short report with few sentences stated by one of the member societies who nominated our laureate: Egon Balas has been at the forefront of developments in Integer Programming during the last 35 years. His work has been innovative and influential, at the heart of what EURO values: methodological breakthroughs with great impact on the practice of Operational Research. To summarize, Egon Balas has been one of the most creative contributors to Integer Programming and a very active participant in European Operational Research. And he till is! Let us thank him by awarding the EURO Gold Medal 2001.
More information concerning the activities of EURO can be obtained from
Marino Widmer, ASRO representative
to EURO
marino.widmer@unifr.ch