The association, now called the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®), is meeting from November 17 – 20 at the San Jose Convention Center.
Arthur Christman is available for interview.
Arthur Christman began his career in military operations research during the 1950’s when he was scooped up by one of its pioneers and ended it 15 years ago when he returned from the private sector to assess weapons systems being considered by the Defense Department.
Christman’s first career, teaching undergraduate physics, was interrupted when he joined the country’s war effort as a fire control officer on a U.S. Navy cruiser in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
In 1951 the late Ellis Johnson invited Christman to join the Johns Hopkins University Operations Research Office in Maryland. With the U.S. battling Chinese and North Korean forces in the Korean War, his project team, TEAR (for "Tactical Air") assessed the effectiveness of close air support and artillery support of ground forces.
During this period, Christman also went overseas to become an Advisor to the U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR), reporting on the vulnerability of depots and supply links, nuclear weapons effects, and air re-supply for special materiel parts. While in Europe, he acted as U.S. Scientist with NATO.
In 1952, during this anxious period for the United States, he joined the newly formed Operations Research Society of America and attended its first meeting. The society included numerous veteran World War II analysts who had begun finding civilian uses for the techniques they had created in wartime.
During the society’s formative years, Christman was president of its Western Section and president of its Military Application Section. He established the special interest group’s award at the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Christman’s long career as an operations researcher included 17 years at the Stanford Research Institute, now known as SRI International, in management levels from project leader to Department Director. Demonstrating the versatile applications of operations research, he was responsible for federal, city, military, and industrial analyses. His subjects for analysis ranged widely, including medical air evacuation, city traffic, municipal police departments, and mixed air battle simulations of army air defense missiles and air force interceptors operating in the same air space.
He last served during the Carter Administration as Senior Scientist and Scientific Advisor to the Commander (CDR) of Training, Doctrine, and Combat Developments (TRADOC), an Army Command of 100,000 that included 1,000 scientists and operations analysts. TRADOC established requirements for everything purchased by the Army from canteens, rifles, and boots to tanks and helicopters. He reviewed and advised the CDR TRADOC on the technical feasibility and the analytic soundness of the cost-effectiveness analyses that were conducted.
Christman has not been idle since retirement. The Santa Barbara resident has been on the Board of Directors of the Central Coast Commission for the Senior Citizens Area Agency on Aging.
He is currently serving on the Corporate Board of the American Baptist Homes of the West, 13 Continuing Care Retirement Communities and 16 Affordable Housing Communities, providing services to approximately 5000 elderly residents, of which he is one - the first resident in 50 years to be elected to the Board.
The INFORMS 50th Annual Meeting, "The Silicon Valley Challenge," in San Jose will include sessions on topics in numerous fields, including air safety, e-commerce, information technology, energy, transportation, marketing, telecommunications, and health care. U.S. Secretary of the Air Force James P. Roche is scheduled as a plenary speaker. Close to 2,500 people are expected to attend.
The General Chairs of the convention are Dean David W. Conrath and Professor Burton V. Dean of the College of Business at San Jose State University. Additional information about the conference is at http://www2.informs.org/Conf/SanJose2002 and http://www2.informs.org/Press.
The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®) is an international scientific society with over 10,000 members dedicated to applying scientific methods to help improve decision-making, management, and operations. Members of INFORMS work in business, government, and academia. They are represented in fields as diverse as airlines, health care, law enforcement, the military, the stock market, and telecommunications. 2002 is the 50th anniversary of organized operations research in the United States. 1952 was the year that the journal Operations Research and the Operations Research Society of America, one of the founding societies of INFORMS, were born. The INFORMS website is at http://www.informs.org.