George Nemhauser
Why did you choose Northwestern?
I received a B.Ch.E degree from CCNY in 1958. I applied to graduate school and received fellowship offers from Northwestern and Purdue. I asked a professor which I should accept. He said Purdue didn't have women (at the time) or alcohol so that's where you should go to finally get serious about your education. I thanked him and sent my acceptance letter to Northwestern.
How would you describe your research and/or work to a non-academic audience? What was it then and/or what it is now?
My research is on algorithms for solving large-scale optimization problems. Applications abound in logistics, finance, health, transportation, manufacturing, scheduling etc. I was a founder of the Sports Scheduling Group that produced the schedules for major league baseball and many university conferences basketball and football programs.
Tell us who or what inspired your research and/or work.
My professor at Northwestern L.G. (Jack) Mitten.
What are you most proud of in your career to date?
I supervised more than 70 PhD students during my career at Johns Hopkins, Cornell, and Georgia Tech, two of whom are currently on the Northwestern faculty and I'm a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Tell us about a current achievement or something you're working on that excites you.
Some of my recent work has involved the integration of optimization and machine learning.
What advice would you give your younger self or someone considering a similar path?
If you like doing research and working with bright young people, academia is a great career.