''Super Bowl'' of Operations Research Coming to Miami: May 1 - May 2; International Executives Converge at Miami's Hotel InterContinental to Learn How to Make Better Business Decisions

Business Wire, April 28, 2006

HANOVER, Md. -- This weekend top executives from across the country will descend upon Miami, but they won't be going to the beach. Top leaders from companies like Boeing, Amazon.com, Travelocity, UPS, Proctor & Gamble and IBM will be attending the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences' (INFORMS(R)) 2006 Franz Edelman Award competition. The winner of the competition will be announced at a special awards banquet on Monday, May 1, 2006, which will kick off with a speech by General Motors' head of R & D (See: http://www2.informs.org/Conf/Practice06/index.htm).

Each year, the Franz Edelman competition recognizes outstanding examples of Operations Research (O.R.)-based projects that have transformed companies, entire industries and people's lives. O.R., commonly referred to as "The Science of Better," is a discipline that uses advanced analytical methods to make better decisions and is a disciplined way to improve almost any business situation in nearly any type of organization in the public or private sector.

Who: Global practitioners of Operations Research at some of the
world's largest companies, academic institutions and organizations.
Broadcast and Print Media are invited and encouraged to attend.

What: The 2006 "Applying Science to the Art of Business"
Conference, hosted by INFORMS.

Where: Hotel InterContinental
       100 Chopin Plaza
       Miami, Florida 33131
       305-577-1000

When: Monday, May 1 - Tuesday, May 2, 2006

Highlights of the conference will include presentations from the 2006 Franz Edelman Award finalists on Monday, May 1, 2006:

8:00am-9:00am

Streamlining Aircraft Repair and Overhaul at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center

9:10am-10:00am

Supporting Travelocity's Transition to Travel Retailer and Economic Turn-Around

10:30am-11:20am

Analytical Models Enable TSA Policy Makers to Better Balance Impacts on Aviation Security, Passengers and the Airlines

11:30am-12:20pm

Omya Hustadmarmor: Optimizing the Supply Chain of Calcium Carbonate Slurry to the European Paper Making Industry

2:00pm-2:50pm

Quantitative Risk Assessment of Animal Antibiotics at the Animal Health Institute

Other Conference Presentations of Note:

9:10am-10:00am - Monday, May 1 - "Pediatric Vaccine Pricing & Stockpiling Issues," Sheldon Jacobson, Ph.D., University of Illinois

4:30pm-5:20pm - Monday, May 1 - "Interplanetary SC Management & Logistics," Diego Klabjan, University of Illinois, David Simchi-Levi, MIT

9:10am-10:00am - Tuesday, May 2 - "Benefits of Optimization in E-Retailing," Russell Allgor, Ph.D., Amazon.com

A complete conference schedule is available at: http://www2.informs.org/Conf/Practice06/FINALPracticeMatrix06.pdf

For press passes or more information, contact Chuck Tanowitz or Jennifer Roedel at Schwartz Communications at (781) 684-0770 or by email at INFORMS@schwartz-pr.com.

About INFORMS

The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS(R)) is an international scientific society with 10,000 members, including Nobel Prize laureates, 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, financial engineering, and telecommunications. The INFORMS website is www.informs.org. More information about operations research is at www.scienceofbetter.org.