OPTIMA Mathematical Optimization Society Newsletter 84

September 30, 2010. Starting a new chairmanship of the Mathematical Optimization Society is at the same time very motivating and humbling. Very motivating because I believe the Society is in an excellent position: the membership is strong and the importance of our scientific subject is definitely growing in importance, both in industry and academia. The role of the Society, as the main professional body of researchers in optimization and associated subjects, thus gains in importance and visibility. My current position as a new Chair also makes me realize how much is due to the past officers of the Society. Under the tireless leadership of Steve Wright, the Society has achieved much in past years, successfully organizing (with much help from others of course) the major conferences which are part of its mission: IPCO, ISMP and ICCOPT. The Society has also continued to organize, for the benefit of our world-wide community, the publication of its top journals MPA, MPB and MPC as well as the Optima newsletter. Finally, Steve has been the motor (and everything else) behind the Optimization Online web service. In short Steve’s contribution as Chair has been central, active, and respectful, efficient and modest at the same time. We are all indebted to him. The past MOS Treasurer David Gay has also been as usual helpful, dedicated and responsive self, with no hesitation to spend his time on our behalf in such tasks as financial accounting, legal issues and more. He obviously also deserves our best thanks. I also wish to stress the much appreciated positive role of Jon Lee, the past chair of the MOS Executive Committee, whose interaction with the Council, willingness to exchange and continuous stream of valuable proposals that have contributed greatly to the dynamism of the Council. On behalf of all optimizers world-wide, many thanks to all three. It is also a pleasure to report on the success of the last ICCOPT and associated winter school, organized by Alejandro Jofré and his local energetic team in Santiago, Chile, from August 24 to 29, 2010. The many participants to this top-level meeting will surely remember the quality of the presentations and scientific interactions, but also the most kind hospitality of our Chilean colleagues, the lively wintery activity of Santiago, and the snowy Andes in the background. Again think you dear Alejandro and colleagues for this remarkable opportunity. The Mathematical Optimization Society moves on, and I am pleased to announce an important new development. After some sleepy years, the Society Publications Committee has been reinstated. This Committee is chaired by Alexander Shapiro and its members are Nick Gould, Christoph Helmberg, Jie Sun and Robert Weismantel. Its mission, as indicated in the Society’s bylaws, includes overseeing the publication process of our journals, improving their effectiveness and making proposals to the Council regarding the succession of the journal’s Editors in Chief at the end of their terms. I am very confident that this excellent group will work actively to further promote the quality and attractiveness of the MOS publications. Finally, let me close this column by an appeal to all. For MOS to continue to be, as we all wish, a true and efficient support for our research activities, it must be strong and representative of our community. In particular, the size of membership is a clear argument when negotiating facilities at conferences among other things. The current membership is faring reasonably well, but my goal is to increase significantly. This hope is justified because I am certain that many more researchers (students and more senior staff) working in our scientific domain are not yet members of our Society. I wish, therefore, to encourage them all to join us, so we can be stronger together to promote our field, its meetings and journals. With this in mind, I hope that you will promote MOS membership among your colleagues. I wish you all a most fruitful research time and hope to meet you soon at one of our conferences.