Judith S. Liebman (July 2, 1936 – July 8, 2023) was an American

operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...

er,

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

, and

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...

. She was a

professor emerita ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

and the only female 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 of ...

(now INFORMS).

Education and career

Liebman was interested in science as a child, and was inspired by a biography of

Marie Curie Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (; ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( ; ), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was List of female ...

. She earned a bachelor's degree in physics from the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

in 1958. She then worked as an engineer and programmer at Convair Astronautics,

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

, and the chemistry department of

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, where her husband was pursuing a degree in environmental engineering. At Cornell, she began taking courses in

, and when her husband moved to

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 ...

as a new faculty member, she moved with him and began graduate study there. She completed a Ph.D. in

at Johns Hopkins in 1971. She stayed at Johns Hopkins as an assistant professor of public health administration, and operations research, but in 1972 she moved to the

with a major appointment in the Department of Civil Engineering and a minor appointment in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. Because both Liebman and her husband were joining the University of Illinois faculty at the same time and in the same department, her appointment required special approval from the president of the university to override the rules then in place against hiring the wife of a male faculty member. At the time, there was only one other female faculty member in the College of Engineering at Illinois (in the Department of Physics), so she became the first female engineering faculty member. In 1978, when her husband became Head of Civil Engineering, she shifted her appointment entirely to the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. She became a full professor in 1984. She served as Vice-Chancellor for Research and Dean of the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1987 to 1992. Liebman and her husband both retired in 1996, although they continued part-time teaching for several years.

Service

Liebman served as President of her professional society, the

, in 1987. She was the first woman president of the society, before it merged with The Institute of Management Sciences to form 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 Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often s ...

(INFORMS) in 1995.

Death

Liebman died on July 8, 2023, at the age of 86.

Awards and honors

* In 1996, INFORMS awarded Liebman the George E. Kimball Medal, for outstanding contributions to the profession of operations research. * In 2002, Liebman became one of the inaugural Fellows of INFORMS.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liebman, Judith 1936 births 2023 deaths 20th-century American women 21st-century American women American civil engineers American mechanical engineers American women academics American women engineers American operations researchers University of Colorado alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences