James B. Orlin

About

James B. Orlin is the E. Pennell Brooks (1917) Professor in Management and a Professor of Operations Research at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He specializes in network and combinatorial optimization, contributing to the development of improved solution methodologies in airline scheduling, railroad scheduling, logistics, network design, telecommunications, inventory control, and marketing. Orlin has co-authored the award-winning textbook, Network Flows: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications, and holds degrees in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and the California Institute of Technology, a MMath from the University of Waterloo, and a PhD in operations research from Stanford University. His work has been recognized with prestigious awards such as the 2020 INFORMS Khachiyan Prize for lifetime achievements in optimization, and the ACM SIGecom Test of Time Award for impactful research in computational social choice. His research and contributions have significantly advanced the fields of network flows and combinatorial optimization.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Algorithm
• Mathematics
• Combinatorics
• Theoretical computer science

Selected publications

• Fully Polynomial Time Approximation Schemes for Stochastic Dynamic Programs

  SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics · 2014-01-01 · 75 citations

  article

  We present a framework for obtaining fully polynomial time approximation schemes (FPTASs) for stochastic univariate dynamic programs with either convex or monotone single-period cost functions. This framework is developed through the establishment of two sets of computational rules, namely, the calculus of $K$-approximation functions and the calculus of $K$-approximation sets. Using our framework, we provide the first FPTASs for several NP-hard problems in various fields of research such as knap…

  PublisherDOI

• On the power of randomization in network interdiction

  Operations Research Letters · 2015-12-02 · 50 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Robust Monotone Submodular Function Maximization

  Lecture notes in computer science · 2016-01-01 · 43 citations

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Robust optimization with incremental recourse

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2013-12-14 · 19 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  In this paper, we consider an adaptive approach to address optimization problems with uncertain cost parameters. Here, the decision maker selects an initial decision, observes the realization of the uncertain cost parameters, and then is permitted to modify the initial decision. We treat the uncertainty using the framework of robust optimization in which uncertain parameters lie within a given set. The decision maker optimizes so as to develop the best cost guarantee in terms of the worst-case a…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• On the complexity of energy storage problems

  Discrete Optimization · 2017-12-20 · 18 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Nearly Optimal Solutions for Stochastic Optimization Problems

  NSF · $339k · 2008–2012

• Hub Based Routing of Highly Variable Traffic

  NSF · $59k · 2005–2007

• A Grammar-Based Approach to Dynamic Programming for Combinatorial Optimization

  NSF · $110k · 2006–2008

Frequent coauthors

• Ravindra K. Ahuja

  86 shared

• Dushyant Sharma

  16 shared

• Nir Halman

  13 shared

• Thomas L. Magnanti

  Singapore University of Technology and Design

  12 shared

• László A. Végh

  London School of Economics and Political Science

  12 shared

• Özlem Ergün

  Northeastern University

  11 shared

• David Simchi‐Levi

  10 shared

• Andreas S. Schulz

  9 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Operations Research

  Stanford University

  1981

• MMath, Combinatorics and Optimization

  University of Waterloo

  1976

• M.S., Mathematics

  California Institute of Technology

  1976

• BA, Mathematics

  University of Pennsylvania

  1974

Awards & honors

• Khachiyan Prize (2020) INFORMS Optimization Society
• Test of Time Award ACM SIGecom
• Leonard G. Abraham Prize in Communications (year not specifi…

Similar researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Dimitris Bertsimash-91
• David D. Gamarnikh-39