Bill Cook, Chandler Family Chair Professor in the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE), has been elected the new Chair of the Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS), previously named the Mathematical Programming Society.  Cook is the second faculty member in ISyE to receive such an honor.  George Nemhauser, the A. Russell Chandler Chaired Professor in ISyE, held the title from 1989-1992.

Cook has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Mathematical Programming Series A and Series B, and he is the current Editor-in-Chief and Founding Editor of Mathematical Programming Computation.

Cook's research interests are in combinatorial optimization and integer programming. He is also heavily involved in research dealing with computational issues involved in treating hard discrete problems such as large instances for the celebrated traveling salesman problem.

Four new council members were also elected to MOS, including former Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization Ph.D. student, Sam Burer (Ph.D. ACO 2001), who was advised by ISyE Professor Renato D. C. Monteiro.

Founded in 1973, MOS is an international organization dedicated to the promotion and the maintenance of high professional standards in the subject of mathematical optimization.