Ward Whitt (born 1942) is an American professor of

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 ...

and management sciences. He is the Wai T. Chang Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. His research focuses on

queueing theory Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues. A queueing model is constructed so that queue lengths and waiting time can be predicted. Queueing theory is generally considered a branch of operations research because the ...

, performance analysis, stochastic models of telecommunication systems, and numerical transform inversion. He is recognized for his contributions to the understanding and analyses of complex queues and queuing networks, which led to advances in the telecommunications system. As of November 2, 2015, his publications have been cited over 25,000 times, and he has an h-index of 82.

Biography

Whitt was born in Bozeman, Montana. He received a BA in Mathematics from Dartmouth and a PhD in operations research from

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach a ...

(1969). His doctoral thesis, Weak Convergence Theorems for Queues in Heavy Traffic, paved the path for his future research. Whitt joined the operations research faculty at Stanford before moving to

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

in 1969. From 1977–2002, he worked in

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial Research and development, research and scientific developm ...

and then

AT&T Labs AT&T Labs is the research & development division of AT&T, the telecommunications company. It employs some 1,800 people in various locations, including: Bedminster NJ; Middletown, NJ; Manhattan, NY; Warrenville, IL; Austin, TX; Dallas, TX; Atla ...

. Since 2002, he has been a full professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) at Columbia.

Honors

Whitt received numerous accolades for his seminal contributions to

. He holds a number of telecommunications-related patents. He has been on the editorial boards of major management science journals including ''Operations Research''. He is a member of

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) and

Institute of Mathematical Statistics The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts o ...

. He has also been a member and committee chair in 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 ...

. From 1999 to 2001, Whitt has been on the INFORMS prize committee.

Awards

*2003 INFORMS Frederick W. Lanchester Prize *2002 Inaugural INFORMS Fellow *2001

John von Neumann Theory Prize The John von Neumann Theory Prize of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is awarded annually to an individual (or sometimes a group) who has made fundamental and sustained contributions to theory in operat ...

*200
Harold Larnder Prize
*1997 AT&T Fellow *1996

Member

References

External links

Ward Whitt page
at National Academy of Engineering
Home Page

INFORMS
Biography of Ward Whitt from the Institute for Operations Research and the Managerial Sciences {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitt, Ward 1942 births Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences Dartmouth College alumni Cornell University College of Engineering alumni Columbia University faculty Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty Living people Probability theorists John von Neumann Theory Prize winners