Ravindra K. Ahuja, Krishna C. Jha, Arvind Kumar, and James B. Orlin received the Koopman Prize at the 2008 INFORMS National Meeting for their paper, “Exact and Heuristics Algorithms for the Weapon-Target Assignment Problem.” The Koopman Prize is given to the most outstanding Military Operations Research contribution of the year. This paper is published in Operations Research 55 (2007), pp. 1136-1146. view abstract

Ravindra K. Ahuja became an INFORMS Fellow at the 2008 INFORMS National Meeting. Each year, one out of every 1,000 INFORMS members becomes a Fellow. He received the honor for his “contributions for algorithmic research in network optimization, for the development of innovative methods in transportation scheduling, and for his contributions to practice in the railroad industry.”

Dr. Ahuja has played a key role in integrating Information Technology tools with the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research curriculum. He has published two textbooks and developed extensive material to teach several courses in this area. The Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) recognized his contributions by selecting him as a Finalist for the “Innovations in Curriculum Award” in 2007.

Dr. Bala Vaidyanathan, a former doctoral student of Dr. Ahuja, received the TRF’s (Transportation Research Foundation) Best Student Paper award for his paper, “Multi-Commodity Network Flow Based Approaches for the Railroad Crew Scheduling Problem.” Innovative Scheduling funded this research. view abstract

Ravindra K. Ahuja, Krishna C. Jha, and Jian Liu received INFORMS Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice at the 2006 INFORMS National Meeting for their paper, “Solving Real-Life Railroad Blocking Problems.” This prize emphasizes the quality and coherence of the analysis used in practice, good writing, strong analytical content, and verifiable practice successes. This paper is published in Interfaces 37 (2007), 404-419. view abstract

Ravindra K. Ahuja and Arvind Kumar received the Pierskalla Award at the 2003 INFORMS National Meeting for their paper, “A Column Generation Approach to Radiation Therapy Treatment Planning using Aperture Modulation,” jointly with H. Edwin Romeijn and James Dempsey. The Pierskalla Award is given by INFORMS to the best paper of Operations Research in Health Applications. This paper is published in Operations Research 54 (2006), 201-216. view abstract

The RAS (Railroad Applications Section) of INFORMS gives awards to the best student papers through an international competition. Innovative Scheduling has supported several students through research grants who have won these awards. The award winners include (i) Dr. Jian Liu in 2002 for his paper, “Solving Real-Life Locomotive Scheduling Problems;” (ii) Dr. Krishna C. Jha in 2003 for his paper, “New Approaches for Solving the Block-to-Train Assignment Problem;” (iii) Dr. Bala Vaidyanathan in 2004 for his paper, “A Network Flow Approach for Railroad Crew Scheduling;” (iv) Dr. Guvenc Sahin in 2004 for his paper, “New Approaches for Train Dispatching Problem;” (v) Dr. Bala Vaidyanathan in 2006 for his paper, “Developing Fueling and Servicing Friendly Locomotive Plans;” and (vi) Mr. Ashish Nemani in 2007 for his paper, “Load Planning Problem at an Intermodal Railroad Terminal.” These awards demonstrate that the research funding provided by Innovative Scheduling is promoting cutting-edge research in railroad planning and scheduling.

The book, “Network Flows: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications,” coauthored by Ravindra K. Ahuja, James B. Orlin, and Thomas L. Magnanti, and published by Prentice Hall in 1993, won the 1993 Frederick W. Lanchester Prize. This award is one of the most prestigious international awards in Operations Research and Management Science, given annually by INFORMS to the best publication of the year. The prize citation states - "In the last ten years, there has been an explosion of activity in which most of the fundamental algorithms for minimum cost network flows and related problems have been reworked and improved ...... The authors have been among the leaders in this work. Now they have refined and integrated the most interesting and useful of the new results into a textbook that is admirable for its clear and elegant exposition, its completeness, its wealth of examples, and its extensive collection of suggested applications. This book is a well to which both students and researchers will return for instruction and inspiration...."