Ernest Forman is an American scholar and academic. He is a Professor of Decision Sciences at the

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

's School of Business. He is a co-founder, along with Thomas Saaty, of Expert Choice and developed the first commercial implementation of the

Analytic Hierarchy Process In the theory of decision making, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), also analytical hierarchy process, is a structured technique for organizing and analyzing MCDA, complex decisions, based on mathematics and psychology. It was developed by ...

. Forman's work has been focused on executive decision-making, resource allocation, project portfolio management, risk analysis and risk management, operations management and statistics. He is the author of ''An Analytic Approach to Marketing Decisions'', ''The Hierarchon: A Dictionary of Hierarchies'', and ''Decision By Objectives: How To Convince Others That You Are Right.'' Forman has seven patents related to decision-making and risk analysis to his name. He is currently applying scientifically sound principles to investing in stock options and individually tailored investment portfolios.

Education

Forman received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

in 1964. He then studied Management Science and received his M.S. degree from

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

in 1968 before earning his D.Sc. degree in Operations Research from the

in 1974.

Career

Forman served as a Lieutenant in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

and taught mathematics and electrical engineering at the U.S. Naval

Nuclear Power School The Nuclear Power School (NPS) is a technical training institution operated by the United States Navy in Goose Creek, South Carolina. It serves as a core component of the Navy’s program to prepare enlisted sailors, officers, and civilians emplo ...

. Later, he worked at the

MITRE Corporation The Mitre Corporation (stylized as The MITRE Corporation and MITRE) is an American not-for-profit organization with dual headquarters in Bedford, Massachusetts, and McLean, Virginia. It manages federally funded research and development centers ...

, a think tank, where he conducted seminal research for the development of the ARPA computer network, which later evolved into the Internet. Forman then joined the faculty of The George Washington University where he is a Professor of Decision Sciences.

Research

Forman has worked on executive decision-making methodologies, resource allocation, project portfolio management, risk analysis and risk management, forecasting, operations management and statistics. He has also engaged in research, development and writing about the theory of measurement, corporate and public sector applications of decision analysis, strategic planning, and conflict resolution. Forman's later work involves R&D for improving risk assessment and risk management. He designed Riskion, a tool for risk assessment.

Decision making and Analytic Hierarchy Process

Forman has conducted major research in the area of decision making, focusing especially on a process called the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). His often cited article in Operations Research, "The Analytic Hierarchy Process -- An Exposition", explained important aspects of the practical applications of AHP such as when rank reversal is desirable and when it is not and how AHP has been used in a wide variety of important, complex decisions. Another often cited article "An Empirical Stopping Rule for debugging and testing computer software" was published in the Journal of the American Statistical Association. Most recently, Forman has addressed many of the shortcomings in today's practice of risk analysis and management. The result of his work is encapsulated in the Riskion tool for risk analysis and management which enables measurement of subjective objectives as well as the relative importance of the objectives in a way that make possible scientifically valid conclusions as to how to optimally allocate an organization's resources to manage risk.

Bibliography

Books

*An Analytic Approach to Marketing Decisions (1990) *The Hierarchon: A Dictionary of Hierarchies (1996) *Decision By Objectives: How To Convince Others That You Are Right (2001)

Selected articles

*Forman, E. H., & Gass, S. I. (2001). The analytic hierarchy process—an exposition. Operations Research, 49(4), 469–486. *Forman, E., & Peniwati, K. (1998). Aggregating individual judgments and priorities with the analytic hierarchy process. European journal of operational research, 108(1), 165–169. *Dyer, R. F., & Forman, E. H. (1992). Group decision support with the analytic hierarchy process. Decision support systems, 8(2), 99–124. *Dyer, R. F., Forman, E. H., & Mustafa, M. A. (1992). Decision support for media selection using the analytic hierarchy process. Journal of Advertising, 21(1), 59–72. *Forman, E. H., & Singpurwalla, N. D. (1977). An empirical stopping rule for debugging and testing computer software. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 72(360a), 750–757.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forman, Ernest Living people University of Rochester alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni George Washington University alumni George Washington University faculty Year of birth missing (living people)