Ergun Named Franz Edelman Laureate
MIE Professor Ozlem Ergun is part of the UN World Food Programme team who won the INFORMS 2021 Franz Edelman Award for their project on “Towards Zero Hunger with Analytics.” The Franz Edelman Award recognizes and rewards outstanding examples of operations research, management science, and advanced analytics. The UN World Food Programme is the world’s leading humanitarian organization and 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and is saving and changing lives by delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. In 2020, WFP assisted nearly 100 million people across 88 countries. Analytics has underpinned WFP’s management of its vast and complex humanitarian operations, helping it reach more people, respond faster in emergencies, and realize significant savings that are used to improve lives and empower communities. In addition, Ergun was named a Franz Edelman Laureate for authoring the Edelman finalist paper in INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics. Laureates are recognized for their significant contribution to work that is selected as representative of the best applications of analytical decision making in the world.