Frederick W. Lanchester Prize

2024 - Winner(s)

2024 Winner(s)

Winning material: Collection of Papers: “Unbalanced random matching markets: The stark effect of competition” and “Clearing matching markets efficiently: informative signals and match recommendations”
Citation:

These papers have advanced the field of market design by providing fundamental insights into the performance of two-sided matching markets. By introducing a novel theoretical approach, they resolve a long-standing empirical puzzle: why the set of stable matchings is small in many practically important matching markets. Moreover, by creatively integrating match recommendations and signaling strategies, they demonstrate how to reduce congestion in these markets. These contributions have profoundly impacted both methodological work and practical applications focused on the conduct and organization of centralized and decentralized markets.

2024 - Winner(s)

2024 Winner(s)

Winning material: Statistical Inference via Convex Optimization
Citation:

This book provides a modern perspective on the connection between convex optimization and high-dimensional statistics, commonly used in machine learning. The authors propose a convex optimization-based approach to address some of the critical challenges in modern data science by focusing on establishing performance limits for statistical procedures under the key assumption of computational tractability. This innovative approach lays the groundwork for a scalable, principled framework to efficiently achieve near-optimal performance in high-dimensional statistics, supplying both optimization-based theoretical tools and an algorithmic toolbox for statistical analysis.

Purpose of the Award

Committee Chair

Azarakhsh Malekian
University of Toronto
[email protected] 

Click here for committee information.

The Lanchester prize is awarded for the best contribution to operations research and the management sciences published in English in the past five years (i.e. 2020 or more recent). For a group of publications, at least one publication of the group must have been published during that same five-year period. The prize includes a commemorative medallion and a U.S. $5,000 cash award. The award is given each year at the fall INFORMS Annual Meeting.

Application Process

To be eligible for the Lanchester Prize, a paper, a book, or a group of books or papers must meet the following requirements:

  • It must be on an operations research/management science subject.
  • It must have been published in in the past five years (i.e. 2020 or more recent). For a group of publications, at least one publication of the group must have been published during that same five-year period.
  • It must be written in the English language, and
  • It must have appeared in the open literature.

The submission deadline will be June 15, 2025. The award will be presented at the 2025 Annual INFORMS Meeting.

Click here for instructions.

About the Award/Namesake

Frederick Lanchester

Frederick Lanchester, 1868-1946

In 1896 Lanchester and his brother built the first petrol car in England. Lanchester redesigned and re-built the engine the next year into a two cylinder horizontally opposed version using his new wick carburetor design to improve both performance and speed. His true interest remained mechanical flight, which he had been studying since the early 1890s. He developed a model for the vortices that occur behind wings during flight, which included the first full description of lift and drag. During World War I he was particularly interested in predicting the outcome of aerial battles. In 1916 he published Aviation in Warfare: The Dawn of the Fourth Arm, which included a description of a series of differential equations that are today known as Lanchester's Power Laws...

Learn more about Frederick Lanchester


Past Awardees

2024
Winner(s)
Anatoli Juditsky, Université Grenoble-Alpes
Arkadi Nemirovski, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of ISyE
Itai Ashlagi , Stanford University
Jacob Leshno, Columbia University
Mark Braverman, Princeton University
Peng Shi, USC Marshall School of Business
Yash Kanoria, Columbia University
Honorable Mention
Guillermo Gallego, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Huseyin Topaloglu, Cornell University
2023
Winner(s)
Guanghui Lan, Georgia Institute of Technology
Rakesh V. Vohra, University of Pennsylvania
2022
Winner(s)
Benjamin Van Roy, Stanford University
Daniel Russo, Stanford University
Yurii Nesterov, CORE/UCL
2021
Winner(s)
Dimitris J. Bertsimas , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management and Operations Research Center
Jack Dunn, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2020
Winner(s)
Team Name: Peyman Mohajerin Esfahani & Daniel Kuhn
2019
Winner(s)
Team Name: Omar Besbes, Yonatan Gur, N. Bora Keskin, Assaf Zeevi
Tim Roughgarden, Columbia University
2017
Winner(s)
2016
Winner(s)
2015
Winner(s)
Gerard P. Cornuejols, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business
Giacomo Zambelli, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Mathematics
Michele Conforti, Università di Padova, Dipartimento di Matematica
2014
Winner(s)
2013
Winner(s)
David B Shmoys, Cornell University
David P Williamson, Cornell University
2012
Winner(s)
2011
Winner(s)
David Easley, Cornell University, Department of Economics
Jon M. Kleinberg, Cornell University, Department of Computer Science
2009
Winner(s)
2008
Winner(s)
Hanif D. Sherali, Virginia Tech
Lawrence M. Wein, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business
Warren P. Adams, Clemson University, Dept. of Mathematical Sciences
2007
Winner(s)
David L. Applegate, AT&T Labs - Research, Algorithms & Optimization Dept.
Robert E. Bixby, Gurobi Optimization, Inc.
Vašek Chvátal, Concordia University, Dept. of Computer Science & Software Engineering
William J. Cook, Georgia Institute of Technology, Industrial & Systems Engineering
2006
Winner(s)
Paul Glasserman, Columbia University
2005
Winner(s)
Garrett J. van Ryzin, Cornell Tech
Kalyan T. Talluri, Imperial College Business School
2004
Winner(s)
Alexander Schrijver, CWI, National Research Institute for Mathematics & Computer Science
2003
Winner(s)
Nicholas Vieille, HEC Paris, Dept. Finance & Economics
Ward Whitt, Columbia University, Industrial Engineering & Operations Research Dept.
2001
Winner(s)
J. Michael Harrison, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business
2000
Winner(s)
Olvi Mangasarian, University of Wisconsin, Computer Sciences Department
1997
Winner(s)
R. Tyrrell Rockafellar, University of Washington, Dept. of Mathematics
Roger J-B Wets, University of California - Davis
Honorable Mention
David M. Lucantoni, DLT Consulting LLC
Gagan L. Choudhury, AT&T Laboratories
Kin K. Leung, Imperial College, Electrical & Electronic Engineering & Computing Dept.
Ward Whitt, Columbia University, Industrial Engineering & Operations Research Dept.
1996
Winner(s)
George Fishman, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
1995
Winner(s)
Martin L. Puterman, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Communications & Business Administration
Michael B. Maschler, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Einstein Institute of Mathematics
Robert J. Aumann, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Center for Rationality
1994
Winner(s)
Edward H. Kaplan, Yale University
Jong-Shi Pang, University of Southern California
Richard Cottle, Stanford University, Management Science & Engineering
Richard Stone , Northwest Airlines
1993
Winner(s)
James B. Orlin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ravindra K. Ahuja, University of Florida, ISE Department
Thomas L. Magnanti, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1992
Winner(s)
Akiko Yoshise, University of Tsukuba, Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering
Masakazu Kojima, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mathematics & Computer Science
Shinji Mizuno, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Dept. of Industrial Engineering & Management
Toshihito Noma, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Dept. of Information Sciences
1991
Winner(s)
Frank P. Kelly, Centre for Mathematical Science, University of Cambridge
1990
Winner(s)
Alvin E. Roth, Stanford University
1989
Winner(s)
George L. Nemhauser, Georgia Institute of Technology, Dept. of Industrial & Systems Engineering
Jean Walrand, University of California - Berkeley
Laurence A. Wolsey, Universite Catholique de Louvain, C O R E
1988
Winner(s)
Robin O. Roundy, Brigham Young University
1986
Winner(s)
Alexander Schrijver, CWI, National Research Institute for Mathematics & Computer Science
1985
Winner(s)
Michael Maltz, University of Illinois - Chicago, Dept. of Criminal Justice
1983
Winner(s)
Ellis L. Johnson, School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Manfred W. Padberg, New York University, Stern School of Business
1982
Winner(s)
Karl-Heinz Borgwardt, Universitaet Augsburg
1981
Winner(s)
David Hopkins, Stanford University
William Massy, Stanford University
1980
Winner(s)
David M. Eddy , Director Center for the Study of Health & Clinical Policy, Duke University
1979
Winner(s)
David S. Johnson, AT&T Bell Labs
Michael R. Garey, AT&T Bell Labs
1977
Winner(s)
George L. Nemhauser, Georgia Institute of Technology, Dept. of Industrial & Systems Engineering
Gerard Cornuejols, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business
Marshall L. Fisher, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School Operations & Information Management Dept.
Richard M. Karp, University of California - Berkeley, Dept. of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
1976
Winner(s)
Howard Raiffa, Harvard University, Graduate School of Business Administration
Leonard Kleinrock, University of California, Computer Science Dept.
1975
Winner(s)
Lawrence D. Stone, Metron Incorporated
1974
Winner(s)
Peter Kolesar, Columbia University, Graduate School of Business
Warren E. Walker, Delft University of Technology
1973
Winner(s)
Alan S. Manne, Stanford University
Herbert E. Scarf, Yale University
1972
Winner(s)
Richard C. Larson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1969
Winner(s)
Harvey M. Wagner, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Kenan-Flagler Business School
1968
Winner(s)
Anthony V. Fiacco, George Washington University, Operations Research Dept.
1966
Winner(s)
1965
Winner(s)
Michel L Balinski, C.N.R.S. and Ecole Polytechnique
1964
Winner(s)
1963
Winner(s)
Ralph E. Gomory , Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
1962
Winner(s)
Robert M. Oliver, University of California - Berkeley
1961
Winner(s)
1960
Winner(s)
1956
Winner(s)
1955
Winner(s)
1954
Winner(s)