Thomas Lee Magnanti (born 1945) is an American engineer and

Institute Professor An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

and former Dean of the

School of Engineering Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education ( bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any advanced education and specializations tha ...

at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. Magnanti served as the founding president of the Singapore University of Technology and Design from 2009 to 2017.

Biography

Magnanti received an undergraduate degree in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

from

Syracuse University College of Engineering and Computer Science The Syracuse University College of Engineering and Computer Science is one of the 13 schools and colleges of Syracuse University. The College offers more than 30 programs (bachelors, masters and PhD) in four departments Biomedical and Chemical ...

(1967) and master's degrees in both Statistics (1969) and Mathematics (1971) from Stanford University, where he also received his doctorate in

Operations Research Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve decis ...

(1972). His dissertation, ''Independence Systems and Combinatorial Optimization'', was supervised by

George Dantzig George Bernard Dantzig (; November 8, 1914 – May 13, 2005) was an American mathematical scientist who made contributions to industrial engineering, operations research, computer science, economics, and statistics. Dantzig is known for his ...

. Magnanti is an

of the

, highest title awarded to a faculty member. He is the former Dean of the

MIT School of Engineering The MIT School of Engineering (SoE) is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. SoE has eight academic departments and two interdisciplinary institutes. The School gra ...

. He has served on thesis committees for approximately 70 doctoral students, supervising over 25; his students have included Anantaram Balakrishnan, Bruce L. Golden, Janny Leung, and Georgia Perakis. He became the first president of Singapore's fourth university, Singapore University of Technology and Design in 2009, until his retirement in 2017. Magnanti has been editor-in-chief of the journal ''

''. Magnanti is a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

. He was a founding co-director of MIT's Leaders for Manufacturing Program (now the Leaders for Global Operations program) and the System Design and Management program. He is a past President of the

Operations Research Society of America The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research (O.R.), management science, and analytics. It was established in 1995 with the merger o ...

(ORSA) and of the

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research (O.R.), management science, and analytics. It was established in 1995 with the merger o ...

(INFORMS). He has received honorary doctorates from

Linköping University Linköping University (, LiU) is a public research university based in Linköping, Sweden. Originally established in 1969, it was granted full university status in 1975 and is one of Sweden's largest academic institutions. The university has fou ...

, the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte- ...

, and the University of Louvain (UCLouvain). He has also won the MIT Billard Award and ORSA

George E. Kimball Medal George Elbert Kimball (July 12, 1906 – December 6, 1967) was an American professor of quantum chemistry, and a pioneer of operations research algorithms during World War II. Early life George E. Kimball was born to Arthur G. Kimball in Chic ...

for distinguished service.

Work

Magnanti's teaching and research interests are in applied and theoretical aspects of large-scale

optimization Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criterion, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfi ...

and

operations research Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve decis ...

, specifically on the theory and application of large-scale optimization, particularly in the areas of network flows,

nonlinear programming In mathematics, nonlinear programming (NLP) is the process of solving an optimization problem where some of the constraints or the objective function are nonlinear. An optimization problem is one of calculation of the extrema (maxima, minima or s ...

, and

combinatorial optimization Combinatorial optimization is a subfield of mathematical optimization that consists of finding an optimal object from a finite set of objects, where the set of feasible solutions is discrete or can be reduced to a discrete set. Typical combi ...

. He has conducted research on such topics as production planning and scheduling, transportation planning, facility location, logistics, and communication systems design. He is also known for pioneering an educational philosophy that combines engineering and management.

Other awards

* Journal Networks: Glover-Klingman Prize, best paper published during the year (2005) * 2002 class of

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

s of the

* American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Fellow (2000) * Operations Research Society of America: Lanchester Prize, Best Publication in Operations Research (1993) *

: Member (1991) * MIT: Irwin Sizer Award for Significant Innovations in MIT Education (2001) * Linköping University: Honorary Doctorate * University of Montreal: Honorary Doctorate * Université Catholique de Louvain: Honorary Doctorate * The Technion: Honorary Doctorate * Syracuse University: Honorary Doctorate (2022)

Publications

* ''Applied Mathematical Programming'' * ''Network Flows: Theory, Algorithms and Applications'' * Lagrange and Fenchel Duality Are Equivalent, Mathematical Programming, 7, 253–258, 1974. * Network Design and Transportation Planning: Models and Algorithms (with R. T. Wong), Transportation Science, 18(1), 1-55, 1984. * Extremum Properties of Hexagonal Partitioning and the Uniform Distribution in Euclidean Location (with M. Haimovich), ''

SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics '' SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics'' is a peer-reviewed mathematics journal published quarterly by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). The journal includes articles on pure and applied discrete mathematics. It was estab ...

'', (1), 50–64, February 1988. * Separable Concave Optimization Approximately Equals Piecewise Linear Optimization (with Dan Stratila), IPCO Proceedings, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 3064, 234–243, 2004. * Strong Formulations for Network Design Problems with Connectivity Requirements (with S. Raghavan), Networks, 45 (2): 61–79, 2005. * An Intersecting Tree Model for Odd-Diameter-Constrained Minimum Spanning and Steiner Trees (with Luis Gouveia and Cristina Requejo), Annals of Operations Research, 146: 19–39, 2006 * Variable Disaggregation in Network Flow Problems with Piecewise Linear Costs (with K. Croxton and B. Gendron), Operations Research 55 (1):146-157, 2007.

References

External links

MIT Bio

Appearance on WMBR's

' radio show October 20, 2004
Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Magnanti, Thomas L. 21st-century American engineers MIT School of Engineering faculty American operations researchers Stanford University alumni Syracuse University College of Engineering and Computer Science alumni Living people MIT Sloan School of Management faculty 1945 births Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering