Booz Allen Hamilton awarded the 2019 INFORMS Prize for Operations Research

AUSTIN, TX, April 15, 2019 – INFORMS, the leading international association for operations research and analytics professionals, announced that Booz Allen Hamilton has been awarded the 2019 INFORMS Prize for their pioneering and enduring integration of operations research (O.R.) and analytics programs into their organization.  

Recognizing the increasing role that O.R. and analytics was playing in the future of their clients’ missions, Booz Allen consolidated their firm-wide O.R. talent into a single, centralized organization to enhance cross-disciplinary exchanges as well as accelerate internal research and development projects. This new practice, Booz Allen’s Analytics Practice, integrated traditional O.R. practitioners from its Defense business with experts in high-performance computing from its National Security business and solution architects from its Civil and Commercial businesses. 

Together, Booz Allen’s team of O.R. practitioners have pioneered the application of data science to minimize vaccine production variability, detect pharmaceutical safety issues, prevent entitlement fraud, and disrupt threat networks. 

Booz Allen has also repeatedly incorporated O.R. into its internal culture to achieve efficiencies and enhance employee and customer experiences. Some of firm’s notable programs include the Data Science Bowl, one of the largest data science-for-social-good competition in the world. Booz Allen also established the Data Science 5K, an internal workforce development program that has rapidly grown Booz Allen’s data science talent by more than 1,600 data scientists in just the past three years.

“Over our more than 100 year history, we have seen the increasing role that operations research and analytics has come to play in how the world’s toughest challenges are solved,” said Steve Escaravage, senior vice president and leader in Booz Allen’s Analytics practice. “We’ve built a thriving team of O.R. and analytics experts who work every day to help our clients achieve their missions—bolstering national security and serving the nation’s citizens. We’re truly honored to be recognized by INFORMS for this work with such a prestigious award.”

The INFORMS Prize honors effective integration of operations research into organizational decision making. The award is given to organizations that have repeatedly applied the principles of O.R. in pioneering, carried, novel, and lasting ways. Past recipients of the award include BNSF Railway, Walt Disney Company, U.S. Air Force, General Motors, Intel, UPS, HP, IBM, Ford, Procter & Gamble, and GE Research.

“Booz Allen Hamilton serves as an incredible example to other companies for their use of O.R. and analytics to transform their organization, and we are thrilled to recognize them with the 2019 INFORMS Prize,” said Melissa Moore, executive director of INFORMS.

For more information about the INFORMS Prize, visit here.

About INFORMS

With 12,500 members from nearly 90 countries, INFORMS is the largest international association of operations research (O.R.) and analytics professionals and students. INFORMS provides unique networking and learning opportunities for individual professionals, and organizations of all types and sizes, to better understand and use O.R. and analytics tools and methods to transform strategic visions and achieve better outcomes.

Visit www.informs.org or @informs.

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