Shmuel S. Oren

Born:
February 20, 1944

Brief Biography

Shmuel Oren

Shmuel S. Oren is a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and former Chairman of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently the Earl J. Isaac Chair Professor in that department.  Oren received his first two degrees from Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology. He moved to Palo Alto, California, after serving for four years as a Lieutenant in the Israeli Army, to study engineering economic systems at Stanford University, receiving both an MS and PhD in 1972. His advisors were David G. Luenberger, Dimitri Bertsekas and George Forsythe. That year, Oren joined the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) as a research scientist, concurrently remaining affiliated with Stanford as a consulting professor. In 1980, Oren left Xerox to accept a full-time academic position at Stanford. That year he was a finalist for the INFORMS Edelman Award.

Oren remained in the Bay Area, joining the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at Cal Berkeley in 1982. He was made a full professor in 1984 and chaired the department from 1986 to 1993. Since 1995, Oren has been the co-founder and Berkeley Site Director of a multi-university National Science Foundation-sponsored (I/UCRC); Power System Engineering Research Center at the university.

A significant portion of Oren’s work has dealt with nonlinear optimization algorithms and with the application of operations research and economic analysis in the telecommunication and electricity industries. He has consulted with numerous private and public organizations including the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the California Public Utility Commission, and the Electric Power Research Institute. His publications have explored pricing of telecommunications services and a variety of energy-related topics including market design in congested electricity networks and electricity derivatives. The Energy, Natural Resources, and Environmental Section of INFORMS awarded him and his doctoral students the Best Publication in Energy Awards for 2010, 2012 and 2015 for papers published in 2006, 2008 and 2013 respectively.

Oren has held visiting positions at a number of universities across the globe. In addition to being an INFORMS Fellow, Oren is an elected Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Other Biographies

University of California, Berkeley Industrial Engineering & Operations Research. Faculty: Shmuel S. Oren Homepage. Accessed June 3, 2015. (link)

University of California Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS). People: Professor Shmuel Oren. Accessed June 3, 2015. (link)

Education

Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineer, BS 1965

Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Materials Engineering, MS 1969

Stanford University, Engineering Economic Systems, PhD & MS 1972 (Mathematics Genealogy)

Affiliations

Academic Affiliations
Non-Academic Affiliations
  • Analysis Group
  • Public Utility Commission of Texas
  • Xerox
  • XpertPower
  • ECCO International

Key Interests in OR/MS

Methodologies
  • Industrial Organization
Application Areas
  • Electricity Markets
  • Risk Management

Oral Histories

Shmuel Oren (2017) Interview by Ramteen Sioshansi, October 23, 2017, Houston, TX.

NOTE:  The video chapter transcripts below are searchable, with search results displayed as marks on the time bar above the search box.  Click a mark to jump to the search word or phrase in the video and transcript, or click on any word in the transcript to jump to that point in the video

Jump to Chapters

Chapter 1: From Optimization to Dynamic Pricing
Chapter 2: Early Life Through Graduate School
Chapter 3: Market Analysis and Related Topics
Chapter 4: Energy Research
Chapter 5: The Broad Foundation of Optimization
Chapter 6: Electricity Market Restructuring
Chapter 7: Current and Future Electricity Markets
Chapter 8: Career Retrospective

Memoirs and Autobiographies

Résumé

Resume of Shmuel S. Oren

Awards and Honors

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Fellow 2002

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences Fellow 2004

Best Publications Award in Energy 2008, 2010, 2015

National Academy of Engineering 2016

Selected Publications

Oren, S. S. & Luenberger, D. G. (1974) Self-Scaling Variable Metric (SSVM) Algorithms: Part I: Criteria and Sufficient Conditions for Scaling a Class of Algorithms. Management Science, 20: 845-862.

Oren S. S. & Spedicato E. (1976) Optimal conditioning of self-scaling variable metric algorithms. Mathematical Programming, 10(1): 70-90.

Oren S. S. & Smith S. A. (1981) Critical mass and tariff structure in electronic communications markets. The Bell Journal of Economics, 12(2): 467-487.

Oren S. S. & Schwartz R. G. (1988) Diffusion of new products in risk-sensitive markets. Journal of Forecasting, 7(4): 273-287.

Kamien M. I., Oren S. S., & Tauman Y. (1992) Optimal licensing of cost-reducing innovation. Journal of Mathematical Economics, 21(5): 483-508.

Oren S. S. (1997) Economic inefficiency of passive transmission rights in congested electricity systems with competitive generation. The Energy Journal, 18(1): 63-83. 

Chao H. P., Oren S. S., Peck S., & Wilson R. (2000) Flow-based transmission rights and congestion management. The Electricity Journal, 13(8): 38-56. 

Oren S. S. (2005) Generations adequacy via call options obligations: safe passage to the Promised Land. The Electricity Journal, 18(9): 28-42.

Deng S. J. & Oren S. S. (2006) Electricity derivatives and risk management. Energy, 31(6): 940-953.

Yao J., Adler I., & Oren S. S. (2008) Modeling and computing two-settlement oligopolistic equilibrium in a congested electricity network. Operations Research, 56(1): 34-47.

Hedman K. W.,  O’Neill R.,  Fisher E.,   Oren S. S. &  Ferris M.  (2010) Co-Optimization of Generation Unit Commitment and Transmission Switching With N-1 Reliability. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 25(2): 1052-1063.

Papavasiliou A. & Oren S. S. (2013) Multi-Area Stochastic Unit Commitment for High Wind Penetration in a Transmission Constrained Network. Operations Research, 61(3): 578-592.