This page cites memoirs by historic OR individuals and about historic institutions, methodologies, and application areas. The first section lists memoirs and autobiographies by historic individuals, while the second section lists memoirs about institutions, methodologies, and application areas.
Please inform [email protected] about any OR-related memoirs and autobiographies that are missing from this list.
Memoirs by Historic OR Individuals
Ackoff, Russell L.
Ackoff R. L. (2010) Memories. Triarchy Press: Devon, United Kingdom.
Ackoff, R. L. (1999) On Passing Through 80. Proceedings Russell L. Ackoff and the Advent of Systems Thinking, Viilanova University March 4-6,1999 32-36 (link)
Ackoff, R. L. (1999) A Lifetime of Systems Thinking. Systems Thinker (link)
Allais, Maurice F. C.
Nobel Prize. Nobel Prizes and Laureates: Maurice Allais - Biographical. Accessed May 30, 2015. (link)
Arrow, Kenneth J.
Arrow, K.J. (1991) The origins of the Impossibility Theorem. In Lenstra, J.K., Rinnooy Kan, A.H.G., Schrijver, A.(eds.) History of Mathematical Programming. North Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 1–4
Arrow, K.J., (2002) The genesis of ‘‘optimal inventory policy’’. Operations Research, 50, 1–2.
Nobel Prize. Nobel Prizes and Laureates: Kenneth J. Arrow - Biographical. Accessed January 5, 2019. (link)
Wisdom Seminar with Kenneth Arrow, 14th September, 2009. (link)
Aumann, Robert J.
Nobel Prize. Nobel Prizes and Laureates: Robert J. Aumann - Biographical. December 19, 2018. (link)
Balas, Egon
Balas E. (2000) Will to Freedom: A Perilous Journey Through Fascism and Communism. Syracuse University Press: Syracuse, NY.
Balinski, Michel
Balinski ML (1991) Mathematical Programming: Journal, Society, Recollections, in History of Mathematical Programming: A Collection of Personal Reminiscences, Lenstra JK, AHG Rinnooy Kan and A Schriver, eds. pp 4-18 North-Hollland
Bellman, Richard E.
Bellman R. E. (1984) Eye of the Hurricane: An Autobiography. World Scientific: London.
Dreyfus S. (2002) Richard Bellman on the Birth of Dynamic Programming (Excerpts from Eye of the Hurricane). Operations Research, 50(1): 48-51. (link)
Blumstein, Alfred
Blumstein A. (2007) An OR missionary’s visits to the criminal justice system. Operations Research, 55(1): 14-23 (link).
Blumstein A (2020) Engineer to Operations Research to Criminology: Quite a Trajectory. Annual Review of Criminology 3:1-20. (link)
Box, George E. P.
Box G. E. P. (2013) An Accidental Statistician: The Life and Memories of George E. P. Box. John Wiley & Sons: New York. (link)
Conway, Richard W.
Cornell University Office of Information Technologies. Oral and Personal Histories of Computing at Cornell: Dick Conway Recollections, 1951-2000. (Archived)
Cooper, William W.
Cooper W. W. (2002) Abraham Charnes and W. W. Cooper (et al.): A brief history of a long collaboration in developing industrial uses of linear programming. Operations Research, 50: 35-41. (link)
Dantzig, George B.
Dantzig G. B. (1982) Reminiscences about the Origins of Linear Programming. Operations Research Letters, 1(2): 43-48.
Dantzig G. B. (1991) Linear Programming: The Story About How it Began. In History of Mathematical Programming: A Collection of Personal Reminiscences, Lentra JK, AHG Rinnooy Kan and A Schriver, eds. pp 19-31 North-Holland
Dantzig G. B. (2002) Linear Programming. Operations Research 50(1): 42-47.
Edmonds, Jack
Edmonds, J. (1991, based on an interview by George Nemhauser) A Glimpse of Heaven. Pages 32-54 in Lenstra JK, Rinnoy Kan AHG and Schrijver A eds. History of Mathematical Programming, CWI North Holland, Amsterdam 1991.
Flagle, Charles D.
Flagle C. D. (2002) Some origins of operations research in the health services. Operations Research, 50(1): 52-60. (link)
Flood, Merrill M.
Flood, M ((1983) Letter to Eugene Lawler
Forrester, Jay W.
Forrester J. W. (1989) The Beginning of Systems Dynamics. July 13. Lecture. Stuttgart, Germany. System Dynamics Society. (link)
Forrester J. W. (1992) From the Ranch to System Dynamics: An Autobiography. Bedeian A. G., ed. in Management Laureates: A Collection of Autobiographical Essays, Volume 1. JAI Press: Greenwich, CT. (link)
Frank, Howard
Frank, Howard (2013) Adventures of a Dean: A Primer on Business School Management. ISBN 9781621315292. Cognella, San Diego.
Geisler, Murray
Geisler M. A. (1986) A Personal History of Logistics. Logistics Management Institute: Tysons, VA. (link)*
Used with permission by LMI.
Copyright (c)1986, LMI. All Rights Reserved.
Geoffrion, Arthur M.
Geoffrion A. M. (2010) Lagrangian Relaxation for Linear Programming, in 50 Years of Integer Programming 1958-2008: From Early Years to the State-of-the-Art. Junger M., Liebling T. M., Naddef D., Nemhauser G. L., Pulleybank W. R., Reinelt G., Rinaldi G., and Wolsey L. A., eds. Springer: New York pages 243-281.
Gomory, Ralph E.
Gomory R.E. (2002) Early Integer Programming. Oper Res 50(1):78–81 (link)
Greenberg, Harvey J.
Greenberg H. J. (2006) A Personal History of ICS, 1974-1998. INFORMS Computing Society: Catonsville, MD. (link)
Gross, Donald
Gross D. (2008) Reflections Life, Love and Chance. OR/MS Today, 35(3). (link)
Hess, Sidney W.
Hess S. (2002) Reminiscences & Reflections: My first taste of OR. OR/MS Today, 29(5). (link)
Hoffman, Alan J.
Hoffman A. J. (1991) Linear Programming at the National Bureau of Standards. Lenstra J. K., Rinnoy-Kan A., & Schrijver A. in History of Mathematical Programming, a collection of personal reminiscences, 62-64. Elsevier Science Publishers: New York.
Hoffman A. J. (2003) Autobiographical Notes, in Micchelli C. A. (2003) Selected Papers of Alan Hoffman, With Commentary. World Scientific, River Edge NJ pp. xxiii - xliv
Howard, Ronald A.
Howard R. A. (2007) The foundations of decision analysis revisited. Edwards W., Miles Jr. R. F., & von Winterfeldt D., eds. Advances in decision analysis: From foundations to applications, 32-56. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.
Kantorovich, Leonid V.
Kantorovich L. V. (1990) My journey in science. Leifman L. J., ed. in Functional Analysis, Optimization, and Mathematical Economics, 8-45. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Nobel Prize Foundation. Nobel Prize and Laureates: Leonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovich Autobiography. Accessed January 29, 2015. (link)
Karp, Richard M.
Karp R. M. (1999) The mysteries of algorithms. Calude C. S., ed. in Peoples & Ideas in Theoretical Computer Science, 146-162. Springer: New York. (link)
King, William R.
King W. R. (2012) School Days: Coming of Age in the Mid-20th Century. Xlibris.
King W. R. (2011) Back to School: Principal delivered a loud wake-up call worth remembering. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. September 9. (link)
Knuth, Donald
Web of Stories Video Autobiography (97 Parts)
Koopmans, Tjalling C.
Nobel Prize Foundation. Nobel Prize and Laureates: Tjalling C. Koopmans Autobiography. Accessed April 12, 2015. (link)
Kuhn, Harold W.
Harold W. Kuhn in Wikimization
Kuhn H. W. (1991) Nonlinear Programming: A Historical Note. History of Mathematical Programming: A Collection of Personal Reminiscences, Lentra JK, AHG Rinnooy Kan and A Schriver, eds. pp 19-31 North-Hollland pp. 82-96
Kuhn H. W. (1991) On the Origin of the Hungarian Method. History of Mathematical Programming: A Collection of Personal Reminiscences, Lentra JK, AHG Rinnooy Kan and A Schriver, eds. pp 19-31 North-Holland pp. 77-81
Land, Ailsa H.
Land A (undated memoir by Ailsa Land)
Evolution of LP Code
Land A, Land F and Vegh L. Ailsa Land INFORMS History Interview extensively edited for clarity. 18 July 2019. (linked from the Oral Histories section)
Little, John D. C.
Little J. D. C. (2002) Philip M. Morse and the beginnings. Operations Research, 50(1): 146-149. (link)
Little J. D. C. (2002) Life as the first OR doctoral student - and other prehistoric takes. Larson I., ed. in The Operations Research Center at MIT. INFORMS Topics in Operations Research Series: Hannover, MD.
Magee, John F.
Magee J. F. (2002) Operations Research at Arthur D. Little, Inc.: The Early Years. Operations Research 50(1):149-153. (link)
Markowitz, Harry
Nobel Prize Foundation. Nobel Prize and Laureates: Harry M. Markowitz Autobiography. Accessed January 29, 2015. (link)
Mood, Alexander
Mood A. M. (1990) Miscellaneous Reminiscences. Statistical Science, 5(1): 35-43. (link)
Mood A. M. (2011) A Math Path, autobiography. eBook. Lulu Publishing.
Morrison, Donald G.
Morrison D. G. (1994) Commentary by Donald G. Morrison. Pras L. L., ed. in Research Traditions in Marketing, 21-23. Kluwer Academic Press: Boston, MA.
Morse, Philip M.
Morse P. M. (1977) In the Beginnings: A Physicist's Life. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.
Muckstadt, John A.
Muckstadt J. A. (2005) Preface to Analysis and Algorithms for Service Parts Supply Chain Springer NY NY. pages ix - xiv.
Murty, Katta G.
The University of Michigan Faculty Memoir Project. Katta Murty Memoirs. Published October 20, 2010. Accessed June 5, 2015. (link)
Nash, Jr., John F.
Nobel Prizes and Laureates. John F. Nash Jr. - Biographical. Accessed April 2, 2015. (link)
Nemhauser, George
Nemhauser GL (1991) Mathematical Programming at Cornell and CORE: The Super Seventies. History of Mathematical Programming: A Collection of Personal Reminiscences, Lentra JK, AHG Rinnooy Kan and A Schriver, eds. pp 19-31 North-Holland pp. 114-118
Pollock, Stephen M.
The University of Michigan Faculty Memoir Project. Stephen M. Pollock Memoirs. Accessed March 18, 2015. (link)
Raiffa, Howard
Raiffa H. (2002) Decision Analysis: A personal account of how it got started and evolved. Operations Research, 50(1): 179-185. (link)
Raiffa H. (2011) Memoir: Analytical Roots of a Decision Scientist. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Amazon: Seattle, WA.
Rockafellar, R. Tyrrell
Convex Optimization. Wikimization: R. Tyrrell Rockafellar. Accessed April 28, 2015. (link)
Rothkopf, Michael H.
Rothkopf, Michael H, "Tales from a Non-Standard Career in Operations Research," Rutcor Research Report 48-2000, September, 2000, Piscataway NJ. (link)
Salveson, Mel E.
Salveson M. E. (2003) The Founding Fathers of TIMS. OR/MS Today, 20(3). (link)
Scarf, Herbert E.
Scarf H. E. (1991) The origins of fixed point methods. Lenstra J. K., Rinnooy Kan A. H. G., & Schrijver A., eds. in History of Mathematical Programming, A Collection of Personal Reminiscences, 126-134. North-Holland: Amsterdam.
Scarf H. E. (2014) My Intellectual Trajectory. Accessed June 22, 2015.
Shortley, George H.
Shortley G (1953) Letter from the Acting Editor. Journal of the Operations Research Society of America vol 1 no 4 pp 240-241. (link)
Shortley G (1961) A Letter of Resignation. Operations Research vol 9 no 2 pp 272-274 (link)
Shortley G (1967) Operations Research in Wartime Naval Mining. Operations Research vol 15 no 1 pp 1-10. (link)
Shubik, Martin
Shubik M (1990) Game Theory at Princeton, 1949-1955: A Personal Reminiscence. Working paper no. 123, John M. Olin program in normative political economy, Duke University Press, Durham NC (link)
Shubik, M. (1997). On the trail of a White Whale: The rationalizations of a mathematical institutional economist. In A. Heertje (Ed.), The makers of modern economics (Vol. 3, pp. 96-121). London, UK: Edward Elgar.
Shubik, M. (2013). On the Trail of a White Whale: Sequel. Simulation & Gaming, 44(4), 473–492. (link)
Shubik M (2016) Three Lectures on the Theory of Money and Financial Institutions: Lecture 1: A Nontechnical Overview. Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper No. 2036, April 2016. Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, New Haven (link). Presented at the Cowles Lunch Series, April 2016 (link)
Simon, Herbert A.
Nobel Prize Foundation. Nobel Prizes and Laureates: Herbert A. Simon - Biographical. Accessed December 19, 2018. (link)
Simon H. A. (1991) Models of My Life. Basic Books: New York.
Solow, Robert
Nobel Prize. Nobel Prizes and Laureate: Robert M. Solow - Biographical. Accessed December 18, 2018. (link)
Solow R (2009) An Amateur Among Professionals. in Annual Review of Resource Economics, 1 (October):001-014. (link)
Vazsonyi, Andrew
Vazsonyi A. (2002) Which Door Has the Cadillac: Adventures of a Real-Life Mathematician. Writer's Club Press: New York.
Vazsonyi A. (2002) "Reminiscences & Reflections: My first taste of OR 'I Had a Helluva Big Assignment'" ORMS Today 29:5 October 2002 (link)
Memoirs Related to the OR History of Institutions, Methodologies and Application Areas
Cornell University
Narahari U. Prabhu (2014) My Life at Cornell.
Yale University
Denardo E V (2019) Operations Research at Yale: A Personal Account