Alexander Shapiro has been selected for the 2021 John von Neumann Theory Prize by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). This esteemed honor is given annually for a body of work to a scholar who has made fundamental, sustained theoretical contributions in OR/MS. Shapiro is the A. Russell Chandler Chair III and professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE).

In announcing Shapiro’s selection for the award, INFORMS cited his fundamental contributions to theory and computational methods for stochastic programming, as well as seminal contributions to nonlinear analysis: “The outstanding breadth and depth of Dr. Shapiro’s research, combined with his contributions to the mathematical optimization community, make him the outstanding recipient of this prestigious prize.”

The John von Neumann Theory Prize is the latest in a series of significant recognitions of the impact of Shapiro’s work. In 2013, he received the INFORMS Khachiyan Prize for Lifetime Accomplishments in Optimization, and in 2018, he was awarded the Dantzig Prize by the Mathematical Optimization Society and Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. In 2020, Shapiro was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Shapiro recently served as editor-in-chief of Programming Series A from 2012-2017.