Ann Bixby - Ann Bixby has Ph.D. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from Northwestern University, as well as a B.A. in German and Computational and Applied Math from Rice University. Her dissertation involved the development of an integer programming algorithm for the solution of capacitated vehicle routing problems. Ann interned at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, and returned to T.J. Watson for a post-doc in supply chain management from 1998 to 1999. She joined Aspentech as a supply chain consultant in April of 2000.

Robert Bixby - Dr. Robert Bixby received his Ph.D. in 1972 from Cornell University. Dr. Bixby held various academic positions in the department of mathematics at the University of Kentucky, the department of industrial engineering and management sciences at Northwestern University, and the department of computational and applied mathematics at Rice University. Dr. Bixby was Editor-and-Chief of Mathematical Programming and currently is the Chairman-Elect of the Mathematical Programming Society. He was a co-founder of CPLEX Optimization which was sold in 1997 to ILOG. He currently serves as member of ILOG's Board of Directors and is chairman of ILOG's Technical Advisory Board.

Joaquin Diaz-Saiz - Joaquin Diaz-Saiz was born in Xalapa, state of Veracruz, Mexico. He grew up in the city of Puebla, about 70 miles southeast of Mexico City. He obtained his college degree in Physics and Mathematics from the Monterrey Institute of Technology. His Masters degree is in Statistics from the Interamerican Statistical Training Center, Santiago, Chile, and his Ph.D. is in Statistics from Oklahoma State University. In Mexico, he worked for the Monterrey Institute of Technology (Monterrey), The University of the Americas (Puebla), and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico City). He has been working at the University of Houston since the summer of 1985 for the Department of Decision and Information Sciences. He enjoys listening to classical music.

Thomas Halliburton - Tom has been with Enron Research Group working on optimization models for gas and electricity trading for approximately one year, and was with Enron International prior to that running studies on Central American power systems. Before joining Enron, he worked for 2 1/2 years at Pacific Gas and Electric Company in San Francisco, writing a stochastic model for medium term scheduling of hydro plant and other models for bidding and scheduling PG&E hydro in the then new electricity market. Tom came to the US 5 years ago from New Zealand for a contract with the Department of Energy at the Bonneville Power Administration in Vancouver, Washington. This involved testing a medium term stochastic model. In New Zealand he has worked in a variety of planning, modeling, and traditional power engineering roles with the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand. Tom has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

Ron Hartberger - Ron completed a Doctor of Science in Applied Mathematics, in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, at the University of Virginia in 1968. His dissertation was on an analytic approach to the calculus of variations and optimal control theory. Bachelors and masters degrees in math were completed at Lehigh University in 1963 and Rutgers University in 1965. He has worked at Exxon in the Operations Research Department of Esso Mathematics and Systems, Inc (1968-1976), the Management Sciences Department of Gulf Oil Corporation (1976- 1985), and since 1985 has been a private consultant at a one-man firm, Mathemetrics, Inc. Since 1985 he has built and marketed a real-time gas turbine simulator, been involved in a medical startup company, and consulted in mathematical modeling for energy firms in various parts of the country. Currently he is submitting portions of "Statistics for the Clueless" to colleagues having known professional expertise, and is an adjunct professor at the Houston campus of the University of Phoenix, teaching statistics for business students.

Sukran Kadipasaoglu - Dr. Sukran N. Kadipasaoglu started in June, 2000 as a consultant at Aspentech's Houston Supply Chain practice. Before Aspen she received her Ph.D. in Industrial Management from Clemson University in 1993. Since then, she has been a full time faculty member at the Decision and Information Sciences Department, College of Business, University of Houston. She has been tenured and promoted to the position of Associate Professor of Operations Management in May, 1999. She also served as the Vice President of Education for the Houston Chapter of American Production and Inventory Management Society (APICS). Her specialization is in Manufacturing Planning and Control Systems and, more recently, in Supply Chain Management. She has authored several publications in the areas of Production Planning, Master Production Scheduling, Material Requirements Planning, Shop Floor Scheduling and Supply Chain Management and has worked closely with a variety of manufacturing companies on several projects.

Edward Kambour- Edward Kambour received his Ph.D. in Statistics from Texas A&M University in 1998, and a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Moorhead State University in Moorhead, MN. His doctoral thesis introduced a Bayesian approach to statistical process control.  Ed's papers and reseach interests include Bayesian Quality Control methods (industiral and bio-stat applications), Bayesian forecasting, and Sports Statistics.  He is currently the Senior Research Statistician at PROS Revenue Management, where he has worked since 1998.

Maarten Oosten - Maarten Oosten has a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Maastricht (The Netherlands) and a M.S. in Econometrics from the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). His dissertation addressed a polyhedral approach to grouping problems in flexible manufacturing systems. After graduation, he took part in several consulting projects in the Netherlands, among others, at a paper manufacturer, and a copy machine manufacturer. In 1997 he became project manager for the Center of Operations Excellence, the research institute of the Faculty of Economics of the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC, Canada). In 1999 he joined PROS as a product manager for PROS' rail applications. His research interests are in the intersection of the fields of manufacturing, scheduling, and revenue management.

Judy Pastor - Ms. Judy Pastor received her BS in computer science from the University of Pittsburgh and her MS in operations research from Stanford University. Ms. Pastor worked for 9 years as a systems analyst in the oil industry before she returned for her graduate degree. In the past 10 years, Ms. Pastor has worked in the OR area. Her career includes operations research positions at United Parcel Service, Haverly Systems and Continental Airlines. Ms. Pastor was a founding member of the OR group at Continental in which she is now a senior manager.

Chonawee Supatgiat - Dr. Supatgiat received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1999. He is currently a manager in the Research group at Enron Corp. His professional experience includes a college co-op at IBM T.J. Watson Research center, Yorktown Height, New York and a planning analyst at ESSO Standard Thailand. His research interests are decision analysis, applied probability and stochastic processes, finance, energy and environment, production and inventory control, and game theory. The materials of this talk are based on his research work at the University of Michigan and at IBM Research center.