Egon Balas, Operations Research Pioneer, Research Retrospective (1922-2019)
Egon Balas, University Professor of Industrial Administration and Applied Mathematics, The Thomas Lord Professor of Operations Research, is the pioneer of algorithm and integer programming. Learn about his journey through Nazi Germany and Communist Romania to Carnegie Mellon to become one of the world's premier applied mathematicians.
Video Transcript
[Gerard Cornuejols]
Egon Balas is a giant of operations research, and he was really a pioneer in integer programming, 20 years ahead of anybody else.
[Egon Balas]
When I was 17, I started in high school to study physics, and I came across relativity, and I was so much caught by the excitement of this entirely new theory of the world. There is the saying: facts are stubborn things. Here is a small fact, and this small fact was sufficiently powerful to cause a revolution in our whole view of the world. Had the war not come into my part of the world, I would have become a physicist in all likelihood.
The Nazis were conquering the world and were doing terrible things. I didn't like to be simply a spectator. I wanted to be a participant. So I wanted to fight the Nazis.
I met my current wife, Edith, in '46. I married her in '48.
[Edith Balas]
He's seven years older than me, and he went through so much in his life. He was always very focused in his work. So first, work and then work, and second, work. And then maybe the family and the rest of the world.
[Egon Balas]
My first project was joint with Peter Hammer, and we worked out an optimal transportation plan for the firewood all across the country, which required the solution of a linear programming problem. In 1963, I had to solve a forestry problem. There was a plot of forests which needed a harvesting plan for the next five-year period, and I formulated that as an integer programming problem. Zero-one variables, yes or no variables — bivalent we call them, two-value variables. I devised my own procedure and solved the problem and presented the article, first in Bucharest and then sent it to the West. And that was a big hit, a big success. It's called the additive algorithm. Ultimately it was published two years later in Operations Research, and for 52 years it was the most cited article. That was my step into the profession.
[Gerard Cornuejols]
Some people say that algorithms are now a trillion times faster than they were 30 years ago. Part of it is due to faster computers, but the bulk of it is due to better algorithms, and this was pioneered by Egon Balas in the '70s.
[Egon Balas]
Integer programming stayed that way. A rich theory was built, but it still couldn't solve problems beyond a small number of variables for 30, 40 years. And the situation changed in this period between 1990 and 2005. This revolution occurred in the state of the art. And our work — Gerard's and mine and some others — played a crucial role in this revolution in the state of the art. So now integer programs can be solved. Not all of them — there are still cases which are unsolvable in practical time, but the run of the mill problem that you come across in practical life nowadays can be solved. This was the revolution in the state of the art of the integer programming field.
[Gerard Cornuejols]
We talk a lot. We are very good friends. I know it's always a pleasure to bounce off ideas.
On Wednesday evenings we play tennis. We've been doing this at least 20 years, probably more. He's done so much for me; I'm just so grateful that I have such a friend.
He has this very independent way of thinking, very unique way of thinking, so I know that makes him a great researcher because I know he doesn't think like others would.
[Aleksandr Kazachkov]
Working with Dr. Balas, it's an honor and a privilege. He's really, really good at forming the story that is told. Given the same kind of data, you can tell different types of stories, and he's very good at seeing the bigger picture. He wants to make a real practical impact, meaning that he won't work on theoretical questions if there are no practical impacts that can be from made that in the future that he sees.
[Edith Balas]
His gift is intellectual capability, concentration, discipline. What he has to do, he would do that. So he's very focused. He is not interested in what is happening. He didn't know about Lady Gaga until last year, or anybody. He is very, very focused in his work, which is good because this is how people achieve something.
[Aleksandr Kazachkov]
Having Dr. Balas on the Tepper faculty, I think has and will continue to influence the path that Tepper takes for generations to come.
[Egon Balas]
Most people do a job which after a while becomes boring and work becomes a burden. And so retirement is a very wise institution and necessary. But some people who are very lucky — I consider myself among those — have a job which they enjoy doing. I do what I like most. I do research. I teach the subjects that I'm interested in. I enjoy getting other people know the facts and getting interested, and so why would I quit?