Keynote Speakers
Karla L. Hoffman
Karla L. Hoffman is IFORS VP representing the North American region (NORAM). The fourth President of INFORMS and an INFORMS fellow, she is a professor of systems engineering and OR in the Volgenau School of Engineering of George Mason University, USA. Her research has focused on practical applications of operations research and optimization to problems including transportation scheduling, airport landing slot allocation, spectrum auctions, and telecommunications budgeting.
Among her latest distinctions include the 2018 INFORMS Franz Edelman Award for her work with the US Federal Communications Commission on spectrum allocation. Other awards include the Department of Commerce Silver Medal and the Applied Research Award of the National Institute of Standards and Technology as well as the Kimball and Omega Rho Lecturer Awards.
Hoffman graduated from Rutgers University with a BS in Mathematics, earned her MBA from George Washington University, where she completed her doctorate in operations research from the engineering school.
Andrés Weintraub
Andrés Weintraub was president of IFORS from 1998-2000. He is a full Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Chile. His OR interests include: Models in forestry and mining, Transportation and Logistics, Applied Integer Programming.
A member of the coveted Academy of Sciences of Chile, the US National Academy of Engineering as well as an INFORMS Fellow, Prof. Weintraub has won international (Edelman Prize Competition, Harold Larnder Prize) as well as local recognitions, which include: Chilean Forest Engineers Association’s Contribution to Forest Engineering, Chilean Engineers Institute’s Distinguished Activities Prize, National Prize in Applied Science and Technology of Chile.
He obtained his Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Chile and both his M.A.in Statistics and Ph. D. in Industrial Engineering-Operations Research from the University of California, Berkeley.
M. Grazia Speranza
M. Grazia Speranza is the current President of IFORS. She is a full professor of OR in the Department of Economics and Business at the University of Brescia, Italy, where she served as Vice Chancellor and Dean. Her research areas include the application of mathematical optimization to the combination of inventory management with vehicle routing and to portfolio optimization.
A former president of the EURO and of the INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics Society, she is co-author of the book Linear and Mixed Integer Programming for Portfolio Optimization. She has authored around 200 papers published in international journals and volumes, and served as editor of several journals.
Prof. Speranza earned her master's degree in applied mathematics and her advanced degree in applied mathematics from the University of Milan.
Simon Dunstall is the President of the Australian Society for Operations Research. He is a Principal Research Scientist and a Deputy Research Director at CSIRO Data61, which aims to promote a flourishing national ecosystem of researchers, developers and innovators in digital technologies and data-driven businesses. The Decision Sciences program has 110 staff and a much larger network of collaborators, and has foci including social media analytics, information systems engineering, natural hazard risk modelling, and finance and superannuation research.
Dr. Dunstall is a researcher in analytics and optimisation. His most recent work includes the development of infrastructure network planning systems for transport and electricity systems, the application of optimisation and real options methods to decisions in ecology and energy management, and the development and application of methods for quantifying and managing bushfire/wildfire risks.
He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and his PhD in Engineering Science.
Xiaoyun (Jack) Xu is a Board Member of the Operations Research Society of the Philippines and Professor at the Department of Operations & Information Technology of the Ateneo Graduate School of Business. Before joining Ateneo, Dr. Xu was an Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Peking University. His research interests include production planning/scheduling, simulation optimization and operations management, with applications mainly in supply chain. His research team has received continued support from numerous funding sources including the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Ministry of Finance of China (MOFC), National Science Foundation of the United States (NSF), Symantec Corporation, AT&T and many other companies. Over the past decade, Dr. Xu has published extensively in journals and presented in conferences in the fields of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. He provides consulting services to many industry leaders in a wide range of industries including Alibaba Group, JD.com, Aland Health, and Qidi Holdings.