ISE is pleased to announce that Professor Zelda Zabinsky was elected a fellow of INFORMS (The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences). INFORMS recognized Professor Zabinsky “for fundamental contributions in developing theory and algorithms for global optimization, with significant applications in engineering design, health care, and numerous other fields, and substantial impacts in education and service."

Professor Zabinsky joined the department in 1985. She has applied optimization and stochastic models to many different engineering applications, including the optimal design of composite structures (for aircraft fuselage), and air traffic flow management. She has worked in supply chain optimization, including inventory management, production, and manufacturing. The stochastic models coupled with optimization lead to problems where risk is important, typically risk of supply not meeting demand. This has been applied to health care systems, and the power grid with renewable generation (e.g., solar panels and wind turbines). She has also worked on applications of operations research in transportation, health care, nanosatellite communications, and forestry.

Professor Zabinsky has published numerous papers in the areas of global optimization with algorithm design and complexity analysis. Her book on "Stochastic Adaptive Search in Global Optimization" is available at the publishers’ web site. Her book was reviewed in Interfaces Vol. 35 Issue 4, 2005.

INFORMS selects fellows based on outstanding lifetime achievement in operations research and the management sciences. Fellows have demonstrated exceptional accomplishments and made significant contributions to the advancement of OR/MS.