Contributions of Professor William W. Cooper in Operations Research and Management Science

Over a long and remarkably productive career, Professor William W. (Bill) Cooper has made many pioneering contributions to Operations Research and Management Science (OR/MS), with notable forays into the areas of (a) linear and non-linear programming, (b) goal programming, (c) chance-constrained programming, (d) data envelopment analysis, and (e) manpower planning, among others. His legendary partnership with Abraham Charnes has provided results whose connections go back to the 18th century, bearing on problems conceived but left unsolved by Laplace and Gauss. We document cross-fertilizing links among Bill Cooper’s multiple research focuses, and their impacts on other researchers. A trace of his work discloses a web of influence that has produced a wide range of advances in OR/MS by those who follow in his footsteps, representing a productive tour de force that shows no sign of abating.