Katta G. Murty

Brief Biography

Katta Gopalakrishna Murty is an Indian-born mathematical programming specialist and a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). He received his bachelors and masters in degrees in statistics from Indian universities prior to coming to the United States. In 1968 Murty received his doctorate from the University of California, Berkley under the supervision of David Gale.  He joined the Industrial and Operations Engineering Department at the University of Michigan at the suggestion of Gale and George Dantzig, his other thesis advisor.

During his first year of teaching, Murty noticed that his students had difficulties grasping the information in the assigned textbooks. He therefore started to make his own notes to accompany the material that eventually came together in his Linear and Combinatorial Programming (1976), the first significant text on the subject. Murty has gone on to publish eight other books.  

In addition to contributions to the literature on the linear complementarity problem, linear optimization, and computational complexity, Murty’s research developments in the field have had significant influence in the application of operations research. Algorithms he developed in the 1960s, including one for ranking solutions to the assignment, continue to be used. This assignment-ranking method was modified into a branch and bound method for solving the traveling salesman problem in combinatorial optimization.

Several of Murty’s earliest students (hailing from twelve different countries) were interested in theoretical research related to optimization. In the process of finding research topics for his students, Murty developed a strong motivation to pursue both applied and theoretical research.

Murty has consulted for the United States Army, Motorola, and a number of other companies. He and Philipp A. Djang wrote a paper on the National Guard’s mobile training simulators location and routing problem and were awarded the Bernard Koopman Prize by the Military Applications Society of INFORMS for best military operations research article in 1998. Murty’s work with the Hongkong Productivity Council and the Hongkong International Terminals on employing a data-intensive decision-support system to increase airport terminal efficiency was a finalist for the Franz Edelman Prize in 2004.  

Murty retired from the University of Michigan in 2010. Over his career he chaired or co-chaired over twenty PhD dissertation committees. Many of his former students have gone on and engaged in successful academic careers of their own. 

Other Biographies

University of Michigan Faculty History Project. Katta Murty. Accessed July 31, 2018. (link)

Personal Website. Katta G. Murty. Accessed July 2, 2018. (link)