John R. Birge received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University in Operations Research. His A.B. is from Princeton University in Math
ematics. He is currently the Jerry W. and Carol Lee Levin Professor of Operations Management at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Previously, he was Dean of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at Northwestern University since 1999. He also served as Professor and Chair of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan where he was from 1980 to 1999. He established the University of Michigan Financial Engineering Program and was chair from its inception in 1997 until 1999. He has held visiting appointments at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria, the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Professor Birge's work considers the design and analysis of practical systems in which some outcomes are not completely known before decisions must be made. He focuses on methods for making decisions that must be implemented sequentially over time. His research concerns the modeling of these systems to obtain robust decisions that are not just optimal for a single criterion but that respond favorably to whatever outcomes occur. In particular, he has developed methods for optimal asset and liability allocations over time, efficient periodic scheduling of workers and machines, productive power and energy distribution, and effective allocation of public services.
Professor Birge has worked for and been a consultant to a number of organizations including Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, General Motors, Chrysler Corporation, Volkswagen, Detroit Edison, Herman Miller, TRW, Schlumberger, the Michigan State Senate, the Michigan State Police Troopers Association, and the Comision de Regulacion de Energia y Gas in Colombia. In addition to these activities, he has held grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Justice, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) in Japan, and the Office of Naval Research.
Professor Birge is former Editor-in-Chief of Mathematical Programming, Series B. He also serves on the editorial boards of Mathematical Programming, Series A, Operations Research, Management Science, Interfaces, Computational Optimization and Applications, America Journal of Mathematical and Management Sciences, and the International Journal of Operations Management. He chaired the Fifth International Conference on Stochastic Programming in 1989 and the XV International Symposium on Mathematical Programming in 1994. In 1986, he was selected as an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator. He has also received the Medallion Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers, the Fellows Award from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the Inyong Ham Distinguished Lectureship from Pennsylvania State University, the E. Leonard Arnoff Memorial Lecturership on the Practice of Management Science, and the 2004 Best Paper Award from the Japan Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He has served as Vice-Chair of the University of Michigan Senate Assembly, as well as Vice President-Subdivisions and President of INFORMS. He is author of two books and more than seventy refereed publications in a variety of journals.
