Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Executives honoured with awards

In recognition of their outstanding contributions to the field of operations research, Dr Robert E.Bixby and Janet H. Lowe have been awarded the first ever INFORMS Impact Prize.
In recognition of their outstanding contributions to the field of operations research, Dr Robert E. Bixby and Janet H. Lowe, two ILOG senior executives, have been awarded The Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences' (INFORMS) first ever INFORMS Impact Prize.

This honour recognises Dr Bixby and Mrs.

Lowe's combined efforts in creating and bringing to market a successful business based on ILOG CPLEX optimisation software, which is today the de-facto industry standard for solving critical resource management problems for businesses worldwide.

The two accepted the award today at the INFORMS Annual Meeting at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Denver, Colorado.

Sponsored by Princeton Consultants and presented by INFORMS, the Impact Prize was created to honour those whose work furthers the application of operations research and management science towards the overall success of an entire organisation.

To be given every two years, the prize focuses on significant methodologies or techniques and the people playing a leadership role in bringing these into widespread use.

'Since this year is the first year of the prize, we had no shortage of strong nominations, but the five-member prize committee unanimously approved the decision to recognise Bob and Janet's contribution of making advanced optimisation algorithms broadly accessible through ILOG CPLEX,' said Warren Powell, chairman of the Impact Prize Committee.

ILOG CPLEX improves decision-making speed and quality for thousands of businesses across a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, transportation, telecommunications, defense and finance.

Today, most major airlines including United, American, Delta, Continental, Northwest, and Southwest, among others, depend on the software to schedule their crews and solve their fleet assignment problems.

The U.S.

Department of Defense uses ILOG CPLEX in mission critical operations for planning and logistics with all branches of the U.S.

armed forces.

There are thousands of commercial and academic users that credit the software for greatly lowering the cost of their specific operations.

In 1987, after several years of development on the core linear-programming software, Dr Bixby recognised its market potential and approached Mrs.

Lowe to investigate and develop a business plan.

The two co-founded CPLEX Optimization in 1988.

The company quickly became the leading supplier of math programming optimisation engines through strategic partnering with independent software vendors and direct telesales.

ILOG acquired CPLEX Optimization in 1997 and the product has grown to become a significant part of the product line.

Today, Dr Bixby serves as ILOG's chief science officer and Mrs.

Lowe, vice president of strategic projects.

'The success of CPLEX was guided by two essential factors - Bob's passion for creating the best solver in the industry in terms of speed, reliability and robustness and Janet's expertise in developing and executing a business plan that established CPLEX as the industry leader,' said Pierre Haren, chief executive officer, ILOG.

'This award exemplifies their efforts in taking CPLEX from the drawing boards to the board rooms of successful businesses.'