Robert Herman

Brief Biography

Born in the Bronx, Robert Herman was the undisputed father of transportation science, having been responsible for the initial working on modeling traffic systems. Herman studied physics at the City College of New York and received graduate degrees in the subject from Princeton University in 1940. At the start of World War II he joined the Carnegie Institute of Washington D.C. and the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University to aid the war effort. Herman worked on a wide range of problems including the proximity fuse for naval antiaircraft gunfire, field testing, and various operational problems associated with the US fleet.

After the war, Herman led a successful career as a physicist, remaining at the Applied Physics Lab for another decade. He and cosmologist Ralph A. Alpher made significant strides in the theory of blackbody radiation and the Big Bang. The pair received the Henry Draper Medal for these contributions in 1993.

In 1956, Herman joined the General Motors Research Laboratory as head of the basic science group. He brought scientific thought to his employer with the establishment of traffic science. Herman became part of a group of traffic researchers that included Robert E. Chandler, Denos Gazis, Elliott W. Montroll, Refrey B. Potts, and Richard W. Rothery. The six men wrote a trio of articles for Operations Research on the subject of traffic dynamics and traffic flow. The three papers were awarded the 1959 Frederick W. Lanchester Prize for best publication in operations research from that year. They were lauded for the representation of “a fruitful application of a rich body of mathematical theory persuasively supported by experimental and computational evidence.” Herman was the only person to have co-authored all three papers. That year’s award set a precedent for the prize selection Committee to encourage the publication of series of papers reporting to a single research agenda as it progresses.

After twenty-three years at GM, Herman joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin as a joint professor of physics, civil engineering, and statistical mechanics. He became the twenty-ninth president of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) in 1980. As ORSA president and a practitioner of OR, Herman challenged the society to continue redefining its mission to address new, important societal problems rather than simply refining solutions to old ones.

Herman received numerous honors for his life’s work and dedication. In addition to the Lanchester Prize and the Draper Medal, he was presented with the George E. Kimball Medal and John von Neumann Theory Prize by ORSA. Herman was described as the founder of traffic science by the society and celebrated for a career spanning over six decades. The Transportation Science Society named its lifetime achievement award after him. Herman was additionally an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

An admirer of classical philosophy and the arts, Herman developed a passion for studying the physics of musical instruments. Later in life, he began carving sculptures that attempted to creatively display the relationship between physical matter and imagination. A collection of his works was presented at the National Academy of Engineering in Washington. Herman succumbed to cancer and passed away in February 1997. 

Other Biographies

Wikipedia Entry for Robert Herman

INFORMS. Miser-Harris Presidential Portrait Gallery: Robert Herman. Accessed June 15, 2015. (link)

Robert Herman Lifetime Achievement Award. Accessed March 20, 2019. (link) 

Robert Herman (1983) Interview by Martin Harwit. April 11. Transcript. Schenectady, New York. American Institute of Physics. (transcript)