Carnegie Mellon University
February 08, 2016

Tepper School of Business Faculty Member Elected to Prestigious National Academy of Engineering

By Chuck Finder / 412-268-3486 / cfinder@andrew.cmu.edu

Gérard P. Cornuéjols, the IBM University Professor of Operations Research at the Tepper School of Business, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional distinctions an engineer can receive.

Gerard Cornuejois

Cornuéjols has been cited for his “contributions to the theory, practice, and application of integer programming.” With his election, CMU has been home to 53 NAE members.

Much of his work the past few decades has focused on integer programming and decision-making in optimization. He and two European professors, who earned their doctorates at the Tepper School, received the prestigious international Frederick W. Lanchester Prize three months ago for their graduate-level textbook called, “Integer Programming.”

"Operations research is at the intersection of engineering, mathematics, computer science … it’s really interdisciplinary," Cornuéjols said. "Some aspects of the work are definitely engineering-related.

"At Carnegie Mellon, the optimization group has been located in the business school traditionally. That’s a little unusual in American universities. In most places, it would be in engineering. In Europe, it might even be in computer science," he said.

Cornuéjols will officially be inducted into the NAE in October at an event in Washington, D.C.

“For the Tepper School of Business, this is a rare and prestigious honor that illustrates how research and work under the business-school tent resonate across the spectrum,” said Dean Robert Dammon, professor of financial economics. “We’re very happy for Gérard, who has been recognized around the world — including the Lanchester Prize three months ago for his contribution to operations research and management science. Such recognition underscores how global, how vital, how interdisciplinary are the research, the faculty and the education at the Tepper School and Carnegie Mellon.”

Cornuéjols earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering at ENPC in Paris in 1974 and his Ph.D. in engineering from Cornell University in 1978.

Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature," and to "the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."

In 2006, the NAE elected fellow Tepper School and Operations Research faculty member Egon Balas, a University Professor of Industrial Administration and Applied Mathematics and The Thomas Lord Professor of Operations Research.

See a full list of this year’s new members