40. Harvey M. Wagner

The second wave of researchers and practitioners in operations research (OR)—roughly speaking, those born in the mid-1920s through the mid-1930s—consisted of graduates of academic programs that included some courses in the principles of OR. Typically, they specialized in mathematics or statistics or economics, but were also exposed to OR topics that had filtered into academic programs, especially linear programming (LP), inventory management, and simulation. Harvey Wagner’s entry into OR followed this path, augmented by a long-term arrangement as an OR advisor to a major management consulting firm. Harvey then proceeded to make important contributions to LP, inventory theory, and management consulting. He wrote a pioneering text in OR, Principles of Operations Research with Applications to Managerial Decision (1969), for which he received the 1969 Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) Lanchester Prize for the best publication in OR.