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  • 30 September 2022 14:52 | Benedikt Zimmermann (Administrator)


    Distinguished Honor Given for Exceptional Accomplishments and Contributions


    The Airline Group of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (AGIFORS) has named Karl Isler, retired Senior Director at Swiss Air Lines, Tim Niznik, Director of Analytics for the Integrated Operations Center at American Airlines, and Richard Ratliff, Executive Scientist at Sabre Labs, as AGIFORS Fellows at its 62nd Annual Symposium held in Toulouse, France.


    AGIFORS is a professional society dedicated to the advancement and application of Operational Research in the airline industry with members representing more than 500 airlines, airline manufacturers, universities and aviation related companies and associations. An AGIFORS Fellow is reserved for individuals who have demonstrated outstanding and exceptional accomplishments and experience in the application of operations research to air transportation and who made significant contributions to the AGIFORS community over an extended period of time through participation and leadership.


    Laurie Garrow, President of AGIFORS, describes the accomplishments of each new Fellow.


    “Karl Isler was instrumental in motivating the airline industry to think about ways to manage revenue when low cost carriers entered the market. Not only did he motivate us to look at revenue management methods for undifferentiated products, he gave us a roadmap for how to do it and worked with IATA to make changes in distribution capabilities. Karl has always been a wonderful mentor to junior staff, and many of his former employees are now in important leadership positions in the industry.”


    “Tim Niznik’s passion for improving airline operations and helping make aviation more sustainable is legendary. He has spent his career at American Airlines developing innovative solutions for managing disruptions that have resulted in several patents and features in multiple media outlets including the Charlotte local news station, the New York Timesand CBS This Morning. He has also collaborated with the FAA, NASA and other federal agencies to design and implement solutions that have shaped today’s air transportation system. For example, he worked closely with NASA to help improve aircraft arrival, departure, and surface movement predictability and efficiency and supported operational demonstrations of these new strategies at Charlotte-Douglas and Dallas Ft.-Worth airports. These strategies saved over 1M gallons of jet fuel and 22M pounds of carbon dioxide. Tim has been a strong advocate for AGIFORS and introduced more than 50 new members to the organization during his 17-year tenure as Co-Chair of the Operations Study Group.”


    “Richard Ratliff has made sustained contributions in revenue management over the last three decades across multiple areas spanning retail optimization, dynamic pricing, customer choice modeling, customer segmentation, and network revenue management forecasting and optimization under dependent demands and competition. For example, he was instrumental in the development and implementation of Sabre’s advanced origin-destination revenue management systems at multiple airlines including American, Canadian, and US Airways. Richard has served on the AGIFORS Council and other leadership positions for more than two decades, and has help build and strengthen research collaborations among academics, airlines, and vendors. Richard has given more than 35 presentations at AGIFORS events and continues to deliver thought-provoking presentations at our events.”


    The AGIFORS Council congratulates Karl Isler, Tim Niznik, and Richard Ratliff on their sustained contributions to the airline industry and commitment to mentoring the next generation of airline professionals. Congratulations!

  • 24 September 2022 10:27 | Benedikt Zimmermann (Administrator)

    During the 62nd Annual Symposium in Toulouse, the technical program was filled with exciting research. As is tradition, AGIFORS honored outstanding contributions in three categories:

    Congratulations to all the winners!
  • 16 September 2022 16:58 | Benedikt Zimmermann (Administrator)
    Kevin Wang, from the International Center for Air Transportation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Winner of the 2022 Anna Valicek Award and was presented with the Silver Anna Valicek Medal for the paper Dynamic Offer Creation for Airline Ancillaries Using a Markov Chain Choice Model.

     

    Simon van Oosterom, from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Second Place Winner of the 2022 Anna Valicek Award and was presented with the Bronze Anna Valicek Medal for the paper Dispatching a fleet of electric towing vehicles for aircraft taxiing with conflict avoidance and efficient battery charging.


  • 30 August 2022 15:26 | Benedikt Zimmermann (Administrator)

    The detailed agenda of the AGIFORS Symposium has been published on the event website:

    AGIFORS - 2022 Symposium Agenda

    Check it out and join us in Toulouse for four exciting days!

  • 26 August 2022 22:36 | David Foster (Administrator)

    The abstracts for all the papers being presented at the 2022 annual symposium are now available on the event website HERE

  • 29 July 2022 08:20 | Benedikt Zimmermann (Administrator)

    From a total of 8 submitted articles the 2022 Anna Valicek Award Committee has selected the two finalists for the 2022 Anna Valicek Award

    • Kevin Wang, MIT: Airline Dynamic Offer Creation using a Markov Chain Choice Model
    • Simon Van Oosterom, Delft University of Technology: Dispatching a fleet of electric towing vehicles for aircraft taxiing with conflict avoidance and efficient battery charging

    As finalists, they will present their work at the upcoming 2022 AGIFORS Symposium (check the Symposium page for more details). Then, the AGIFORS Council will select the winner of the 2022 Anna Valicek Award.


  • 16 July 2022 11:39 | Benedikt Zimmermann (Administrator)

    AGIFORS president Laurie Garrow was recently interviewed for the BBC World Service as part of their Inquiry radio and podcast series. The segment - a deep dive on air travel - will air on 21JUL. Check it out here to learn more about the most pressing issues in air travel!

  • 14 April 2022 04:58 | Benedikt Zimmermann (Administrator)

    AGIFORS’ Anna Valicek Award competition is destined to recognize original and innovative research in the application of operations research to airline and/or airline related business problems. We invite you to submit your research paper before June 1st, 2022!
    Refer to the Anna Valicek page for more details on the criteria and eligibility.

  • 14 April 2022 04:57 | Benedikt Zimmermann (Administrator)

    AGIFORS’ Ken Wang Scholars Program is destined to recognize researchers who are in the early stages of their careers and engaged in an airline operations research. We invite you to submit your application before June 1st, 2022!
    Refer to the Ken Wang Scholars page for more details on the criteria and eligibility.

  • 29 September 2021 15:02 | Benedikt Zimmermann (Administrator)

    The winners for the 2021 Anna Valicek medal have been decided!

    Silver: Ingeborg de Pater, from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Winner of the 2021 Anna Valicek Award and was presented (virtually) with the Silver Anna Valicek Medal for the paper Predictive maintenance for multi-component systems of repairables with remaining-useful-life prognostics and a limited stock of spare components.

    Bronze: Greta Laage, from IVADO Labs and École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada, has been recognized by AGIFORS as Second Place Winner of the 2021 Anna Valicek Award and was presented (virtually) with the Bronze Anna Valicek Medal for the paper Assessing the impact: Does an improvement to a revenue management system lead to an improved revenue?"

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