As the Fall semester comes to a close, we’re excited to bring our community together for a relaxed end-of-semester gathering on Friday, December 12, beginning at 4:30 PM in ISOM Room N145. This event is open to all faculty, students, staff, and friends, and we’d be happy to have you join us.
We’ll have a mix of food to enjoy, including Ukrainian varenyky (pierogies), pizza, desserts, fresh fruit, and more. It’s a nice moment to step away from the end-of-term rush, connect with others, and celebrate the many activities and accomplishments of the semester.
Whether you’ve attended our events regularly or this would be your first time joining us, we’d love to see you there!
Below is the event poster with all the details. Looking forward to sharing the afternoon with you!
On Friday, November 7, our chapter came together for a cheerful celebration of two major recognitions from the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta: the Cum Laude Award for our Student Chapter and the President’s Award received by Professor Anna Nagurney. It was a great way to wrap up an exciting week for our community.
The celebration table was filled with delicious refreshments, including muffins, croissants, fruits, and a basket of chocolates kindly brought by Professor Nagurney. Everyone gathered around, talked, laughed, and enjoyed a relaxed morning before we cut the cake and continued the celebration.
We were also very happy to welcome Professor Arzum Akkas, who joined us for the gathering and shared in the celebration.
We would like to give a big thank you to last year’s Chapter President, Ismael Pour, for his leadership, and all of last year’s officers for their hard work that contributed to earning the Cum Laude Award. And a special thank you to our faculty advisor, Professor Anna Nagurney, for her constant support, guidance, and encouragement, which continue to strengthen our chapter year after year.
To wrap up, we took a group photo with both awards to mark the moment and thank everyone who supports the chapter.
The 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta was memorable in more ways than one. While we had an exciting lineup of student presentations that showcased the strength and diversity of our research community, which we shared in an earlier blog post, this year stood out for an especially meaningful reason: we returned home not with one, but two major honors that made the conference truly unforgettable for us.
We are thrilled to share that Professor Anna Nagurney, our faculty advisor, received the INFORMS President’s Award, one of the highest distinctions in our field. This award recognizes individuals whose work has made exceptional contributions to society through operations research and management science (OR/MS). Professor Nagurney’s career has been defined by groundbreaking research, dedicated mentorship, and a deep commitment to making the OR/MS more inclusive and impactful, a legacy that continues to inspire us all. Celebrating this achievement on October 26, 2025, at the INFORMS Awards Ceremony at the Omni Hotel in Atlanta, alongside colleagues, alumni, and friends, made the moment even more special.
Celebrating Professor Nagurney’s INFORMS President’s Award with her current PhD students, former PhD student Professor Deniz Besik, and a former chapter officer.
In addition to this remarkable recognition, the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter was honored with the Cum Laude Award at this year’s Student Chapter Award Ceremony, which took place on the evening of October 27 at the Omni Hotel. This award celebrates student chapters that demonstrate consistent engagement, leadership, and commitment to the OR/MS community. We’d like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our former Chapter President, Ismael M. Pour, whose leadership over the past year played a vital role in this achievement. We’re also grateful to the entire team of 2024–2025 chapter officers for their creativity, hard work, and collaboration.
The Cum Laude Award at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting.
It was a joy to share this moment not only with our current chapter officers and faculty advisor, but also with Dr. Heng Chen, a former chapter member and now a professor at Kansas State University, who joined us at the ceremony.
Chapter officers with Professor Anna Nagurney and Dr. Heng Chen.
To mark these special achievements, we’re hosting a Celebration Gathering on Friday, November 7, at 10:00 AM in ISOM Room N135. We warmly invite all faculty, students, and chapter members to join us for refreshments as we celebrate, catch up, and enjoy the excitement of this memorable INFORMS experience together.
It has only been a few days since the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting concluded in Atlanta, but the excitement and energy of the event remain with us in Amherst.
Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta.
Throughout the four-day event, our chapter was proud to be represented by several student officers and members who delivered insightful presentations across a wide range of topics in operations research, healthcare analytics, sustainability, and logistics.
The conference opened with two presentations by our chapter members. Busra Karkili, a former Social Media Officer, presented her talk, titled “Mission vs. Profit: The Interplay Between Social Service Agencies and Private Service Providers,” in the “Design of Incentives and Allocations – Job Market Showcase” session. Yukti Kathuria, one of our current Blog Officers, participated in the MIF Poster Competition, where she presented “An Order-Based Bayesian Network to Analyze Diagnostic Delay and Type 2 Diabetes-Related Outcomes.” She also presented her work in the “Healthcare Decision Analytics Using AI/ML” session.
Busra Karkili and Yukti Kathuria presenting at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting.
On the second day of the conference, Faustina Sarfo, our Social Media Officer, presented at her first INFORMS Annual Meeting. She delivered her talk, “An Equitable Energy Transition: Integrating Community Perspectives into Power System Modeling in an Emerging Economy,” in the session “Modeling the Energy Transition in Africa.” Ismael M. Pour, former Chapter President, presented his research “Integrated Crop and Cargo War Risk Insurance: Application to Ukraine” in the “Resilient Networks” session. Sindhoora Prakash, also one of our Blog Officers, presented “Optimizing Multidisciplinary Care: Online vs. Offline Scheduling Approaches” in the “Healthcare Decision Analytics Using AI/ML” session.
Ismael M. Pour and Sindhoora Prakash presenting at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting, with Professor Hari Balasubramanian.
The third day was especially active for our chapter. Semih Boz, a former Social Media Officer, presented “Incentive-Based Consolidation in Last Mile Parcel Delivery” during the “Applications of Vehicle Routing in Modern Logistics” session. Samira Samadi, our Chapter President, presented in the session “Sustainable and Resilient Transportation Systems,” where she discussed her work, “Fresh Produce Spatial Price Equilibrium on General Networks: Capturing Commodity Quality Deterioration Through Endogenous Transportation Time Delay Functions with Capacities.” She also gave her second talk, “Multicommodity Trade, Tariffs, and Rerouting,” in the session “Resilient Logistics and Adaptive Strategies.” Parisa Lotfibagha, our Treasurer’s Assistant, also presented for the first time at the INFORMS Annual Meeting. She shared her research, “A Semi-Markov Decision Process Model to Optimize Return to Clinic Decisions in Primary Care,” in the session “AI and Analytics in Healthcare Services.”
Samira Samadi and Parisa Lotfibagha presenting at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting.
Another special highlight of the third day was a commemorative session honoring Professor Hani Mahmassani, recipient of the TSL Herman Lifetime Achievement Award, who passed away on July 15, 2025. Our Faculty Advisor, Professor Anna Nagurney, spoke at this session, titled “Remembering Past TSL Herman Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Hani Mahmassani.” Her remarks reflected on Professor Mahmassani’s extraordinary legacy in transportation science and logistics.
Professor Anna Nagurney at the tribute session in honor of Professor Hani Mahmassani at INFORMS 2025.
Dana Hassani, former Chapter President, concluded our chapter’s presentations on the final day of the conference. He presented in the session “Global Risk, Equity, and Policy Modeling,” delivering his research, “Quantification of International Trade Network Performance Under Disruptions to Supply, Transportation, and Demand Capacity, and Exchange Rates in Disasters.”
Dana Hassani presenting at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting.
We are incredibly proud of our chapter’s strong presence at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting. From those presenting for the first time to more experienced contributors, each talk showcased the depth, rigor, and diversity of research within our community. Congratulations to all presenters for representing UMass Amherst with excellence! We’re already looking forward to the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California, and to seeing all of our colleagues there!
On October 10, 2025, we hosted our Annual Meeting Tune-Up Session, where student members presented their research and received valuable feedback from peers and faculty in preparation for the upcoming INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta.
The session began in a warm atmosphere, with attendees enjoying pizza, fruit, and coffee. Professor Anna Nagurney, our Faculty Advisor, congratulated the team for earning the Cum Laude Award for its activities and extended her appreciation to the presenters, faculty, and attendees for their continued engagement and support.
The event started with the first presenter, Ali Jafari, who gave an interesting talk on unsupervised learning approaches to detect patterns in the co-occurrence of diseases. He was followed by Yukti Kathuria, who presented her work on analyzing diagnostic delays and Type 2 diabetes.
Presenter: Ali Jafari
Presenter: Yukti Kathuria
After them, Samira Samadi shifted the focus from healthcare to the agri-food sector with her research on trade networks and quality deterioration in fresh produce due to transportation delays.
Presenter: Samira Samadi
Ismael Pour then gave an informative presentation on crop and cargo war risk insurance, and lastly, Dana Hassani closed the session with a talk on evaluating international trade network performance under disruptions.
Presenter: Ismael Pour
Presenter: Dana Hassani
Throughout the event, attendees asked thoughtful questions and offered valuable comments that will help the presenters refine their talks for the conference. The lively discussions reflected the collaborative spirit of our Chapter and the supportive community around us!
As always, we posed for a group photo to capture the great memories of this engaging event. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the presenters for sharing their work, and to the students, and especially the faculty, who attended and provided valuable feedback.
Please stay tuned to our blog and social media pages as we continue covering our upcoming exciting events.
With the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, just weeks away, the UMass INFORMS Student Chapter, together with its Faculty Advisor Professor Anna Nagurney, is pleased to host an INFORMS Annual Meeting Tune-Up Event on Friday, October 10, at 11:00 AM in ISOM Room 210.
This event provides an opportunity for students to share their research presentations and receive feedback from peers and faculty before the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting. Faculty, students, and staff are warmly invited to attend. Check out the flyer for details on the presenters and their presentation titles. Pizza and refreshments will be served.
Join us to support our presenters and enjoy a lively discussion! We look forward to seeing you there!
On Friday, September 19, 2025, the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter had the privilege of hosting Dr. Oleh Nivievskyi, Professor of Economics at the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) and Siemens Research Fellow at the Free University of Berlin. Dr. Nivievskyi, a leading researcher in agri-food products, factor markets, and value chain analysis, delivered a timely and engaging presentation titled “Rebuilding Crossroads of Ukraine: Bridging the Gap Between Damage, Recovery, and European Aspirations.”
Pre-Talk Gathering
The day began with a warm pre-talk chat in Room N220 of the Business Innovation Hub from 9:00 to 10:15 AM. Dr. Nivievskyi met with our faculty advisor, Professor Anna Nagurney, along with PhD candidates Dana Hassani, Ismael Pour, and our chapter president, Samira Samadi. The discussion centered on global agri-food products, supply chains, and networks, allowing students to share their own research and gain valuable insights from Dr. Nivievskyi and Professor Anna Nagurney.
The Presentation
From 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM, Dr. Nivievskyi delivered his talk in Isenberg Room 111. Our new president, Samira, provided a brief introduction to Dr. Nivievskyi’s background, and then he was warmly welcomed by Professor Anna Nagurney. The audience also included Professor Senay Solak, Chair of the OIM Department, chapter officers, and three Ukrainian exchange students currently studying at UMass Amherst as part of the partnership between UMass Amherst and KSE: Oleksandra Horusieva, Viktoriia Baliuk, and Karyna Lutsenko.
In his presentation, Dr. Nivievskyi reflected on the immense impact of the ongoing war on housing and infrastructure. He noted that nearly one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory remains under occupation, with the scale of economic and infrastructural damage already surpassing the country’s 2024 GDP. Despite these challenges, Ukraine has begun the process of rebuilding, with modest but meaningful progress made in restoring parts of its housing and infrastructure. He emphasized that moving forward with reconstruction and recovery will require close coordination between Ukraine, its partners, and donors, and above all, a careful balance between rapid recovery efforts and sustainability standards in accordance with EU legislation.
Q&A
The talk was followed by a lively discussion with the audience. Questions reflected the broad scope of issues facing Ukraine, including the scale and timeline of reconstruction, the long-term ecological impacts of war, and the academic landscape in Ukraine.
Refreshments were provided, including coffee and muffins, and the atmosphere was made even more special when one of our chapter officers, Yukti Kathuria, brought a tiramisu to celebrate her birthday.
Following the presentation, we, along with Professor Anna Nagurney and two of the Ukrainian exchange students, hosted Dr. Nivievskyi for lunch at the Commonwealth Restaurant at UMass Amherst. We were also joined by two colleagues from Amherst College, Professor Nataliia Bychkova and Professor Myroslav Kryven, making it a truly enjoyable and memorable gathering.
Thank You
We sincerely thank Dr. Nivievskyi for kindly accepting our invitation and sharing such timely and insightful perspectives during this critical period for Ukraine. We are also grateful to Professor Anna Nagurney, our faculty advisor, for her continued guidance and support in organizing the event. Finally, we thank the OIM faculty, chapter officers, and exchange students for making this event so memorable.
We invite you to join us for more exciting events at UMass Amherst, with our next event being the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting Tune-Up. We look forward to seeing you there!
