An Annotated Timeline of Operations Research: An Informal History

125 Pages·2007·6.51 MB·English

AN ANNOTATED TIMELINE OF
OPERATIONS RESEARCH
An Informal History
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An Annotated Timeline of Operations Research:
An Informal History
Saul I. Gass
Arjang A. Assad
Robert H. Smith School of Business
University of Maryland, College Park
eBookISBN: 1-4020-8113-8
Print ISBN: 1-4020-8112-X
©2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.
Print ©2005 Kluwer Academic Publishers
Boston
All rights reserved
No part of this eBook maybe reproducedortransmitted inanyform or byanymeans,electronic,
mechanical, recording, or otherwise,withoutwritten consent from the Publisher
Created in the United States of America
Visit Springer's eBookstore at: http://ebooks.kluweronline.com
and the Springer Global Website Online at: http://www.springeronline.com
To Arianna,
who brings joy to all,
especially to her Granddad.
To my mother, Derakhshandeh,
the source of my informal history –
for her courage and patience.
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1
Contents
Preface ix
1. Operations research precursors from 1564 to 1873 1
2. Operations research precursors from 1881 to 1935 19
3. Birth of operations research from 1936 to 1946 45
4. Expansion of operations research from 1947 to 1950 61
5. Mathematical, algorithmic and professional developments of operations
research from 1951 to 1956 79
6. International activities, algorithms, applications, and operations research texts
and monographs from 1957 to 1963 111
7. Methods, applications and publications from 1964 to 1978 141
8. Methods, applications, technology, and publications from 1979 to 2004 175
Acronyms 197
Name index 199
Subject index 205
1The items in the Annotated Timeline have been divided into eight time-sequenced parts. Parts 1 and 2 (from
1564 to 1935) present the precursor scientific and related contributions that have influenced the subsequent
development of operations research (OR). Parts 3 to 8 (from 1936 to 2004) describe the beginnings of OR and
its evolution into a new science. They are so divided mainly for presentation purposes.
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Preface
“What’s past is prologue.”
The Tempest, William Shakespeare, Act II, Scene I
Dictionary definitions of a scientific field are usually clear, concise and succinct.
Physics: “The science of matter and energy and of interactions between the two;” Eco-
nomics: “The science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of
commodities;” Operations Research (OR): “Mathematical or scientific analysis of the sys-
tematic efficiency and performance of manpower,machinery, equipment, and policiesused
in a governmental, military or commercial operation.” OR is not a natural science. OR is
not a social science. As implied by its dictionary definition, OR’s distinguishing character-
istic is that OR applies its scientific and technological base to resolving problems in which
the human element is an activeparticipant. As such, OR is the science of decision making,
the science of choice.
What were the beginnings of OR? Decision making started with Adam and Eve.
There are apocryphal legendsthat claim OR stems from biblical times – how Joseph aided
Pharaoh and the Egyptians to live through seven fat years followed by seven lean years by
the application of “lean-year” programming. The Roman poet Virgil recounts in the Aeneid
the tale of Dido, the Queen of Carthage, who determined the maximum amount of land that
“could be encircled by a bull’s hide.” The mathematicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries developed the powerful methods of the calculus and calculus of variations and
applied them to a wide range of mathematical and physical optimization problems. In the
same historical period, the basic laws of probability emerged in mathematical form for the
first time and provided a basis for making decisions under uncertainty.
But what events have combined to form OR, the science that aids in the resolution
of human decision-making problems? As with any scientific field, OR has its own “pre-
history,”comprised of a collection of events, people, ideas, and methods that contributed to
the study of decision-making even before the official birth of OR. Accordingly, the entries
in An Annotated Timeline of Operations Research try to capture some of the key events of
this pre-history.
Many of the early operations researchers were trained as mathematicians, statisti-
cians and physicists; some came from quite unrelated fields such as chemistry, law, history,
and psychology. The early successes of embryonic OR prior to and during World War II
illustrate the essential feature that helped to establish OR: bright, well-trained, curious,