ORIE's Mark Lewis elected Chair of the Applied Probability Society

Professor Mark Lewis has been elected as the Chair of the 400-member Applied Probability Society (APS), an international organization concerned with the analysis of systems that entail random phenomena.  Lewis, who joined ORIE in 2005 and became a full professor in 2011, succeeds ORIE Professor Shane Henderson as society chair.

"I am honored and humbled to serve as the APS chair," said Lewis.  "With a membership that spans probability for the theoretical to those whose interests lie mainly in application, we serve a broad and diverse community of researchers.  Just as was the case when we held the APS conference at Cornell, my position serves as a reminder of the strength of applied probability on our campus," he said.

Lewis received his Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology and taught at the Unviersity of Michigan before coming to Cornell.  His research focusses on the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues, including models of call centers, manufacturing systems, traffic, and the dynamic allocation of resources in systems where processes occur in parallel. 

In addition to his supervision of research by Ph.D. students, Lewis advises Master of Engineering projects and has an active commitment to diversity in Cornell's College of Engineering.  His research is supported by the National Science Foundation and Mitre Corporation.

APS is part of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).   It holds conferences every other year, with the 2009 conference at Cornell, the 2011 conference in Stockholm, Sweden, and the upcoming conference this summer in San Jose, Costa Rica.  

The society publishes the journal Stochastic Systems, which presents papers in a wide variety of domains, including the operation of services; logistics, transportation and communications networks; computer systems, finance and risk management; manufacturing operations and supply chains; and revenue management.

Lewis called attention to the continuing role of Henderson, his predescessor as Chair.  "I would be remiss if I did not mention that the transition has been made easier by Shane's willingness to serve in an advisory capacity.  He is a tough act to follow, but his experience and insights have been invaluable," he said.

In addition to Henderson, previous chairs in the 40-year history of APS include ORIE Professor Emeritus Uma Prabhu, former ORIE professors Shaler Stidham and Richard Serfozo, and ORIE Ph.D. alumni  Ward Whitt, Bharat Doshi, and Vidyahar Kulkarni.