ALAN PRITSKER RECEIVES LIFETIME PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT WARD Presentation Remarks of David Goldsman

Tonight I would like to honor Alan Pritsker with the presentation of the INFORMS College on Simulation's Lifetime Professional Achievement Award --- here in the informal atmosphere of the College business meeting.

The Award recognizes major contributions to the field of computer simulation that are sustained over a professional career. The winner may qualify based on one or more of six areas:

• research,
• practice,
• dissemination of knowledge,
• development of software or hardware,
• service,
• advancement of the status of the field.

Let me start by putting giving some examples showing how longstanding Alan's commitment to simulation has been --- easily over 40 years ---

• from fighting to use simulation for research and consulting at Battelle
• to teaching and developing simulation languages at ASU
• to advancing the state-of-the-art in research and language development at Purdue and Pritsker and Associates
• to leading projects of major societal importance.

Leadership in Professional Societies. By his leadership in various professional societies and governmental organizations over the past 40 years, Alan has contributed significantly to the dramatic growth of the field of simulation as well as the larger fields of IE and OR. To this end, Alan was awarded the Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Industrial Engineering Award in 1991. Its citation reads: This award is the highest and most esteemed honor presented by the IIE and recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves through contributions to the welfare of mankind in the field of industrial engineering. The contributions are of the highest caliber and are nationally and internationally recognized. Alan also enjoys the singular distinction of being the only individual in IIE's history to be honored with a special issue of IIE Transactions on the occasion of that person's retirement --- that issue will be published next year.

Of course, Alan has also served the Winter Simulation Conference in many capacities, most notably as WSC Board representative from IIE and our College over the years.

Leadership in the National Academy of Engineering. The NAE is an organization of national importance and influence --- both on the educational and political sides of things. Alan was the second industrial engineer to be elected to the Academy. He has since served the Academy in many capacities. Perhaps most important to us, he has encouraged the Academy to elect other IE's, and so has directly enhanced the importance of our field on the national level.

Research and Teaching. Alan is recognized world-wide for his advancement of the theory and methodology of discrete and combined simulation, as well as simulation environments. Alan is also widely known for his work in simulation output analysis and variance reduction techniques. Even now, Alan is developing new ranking and selection methods to select the best of a number of alternative simulation scenarios with precise statistical guarantees.

Alan loves to teach and mentor students at all levels. He has also produced a progeny of exceptional Ph.D. students --- among them,

• Hank Grant, Southwestern Bell Professor at The Univ. of Oklahoma
• Hamdy Taha, University Professor at The Univ. of Arkansas
• Gary Whitehouse, Provost, University of Central Florida
• Jim Wilson, Chair of IE at North Carolina State
• Nick Hurst, General, US Army.

Over the past five years, Alan has led the development and use of large-scale simulation models of various operations of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). In particular, the UNOS Liver Allocation Model (ULAM) has been used to compare proposed policies for allocating donated livers to patients awaiting a transplant. This work included state-of-the-art modeling and statistical analysis techniques, resulting in a number of archival publications. But partially on the basis of Alan's extensive analyses of ULAM-generated predictions of the effects of implementing various policies, UNOS made a highly publicized change to its liver-allocation policy in January 1997. In June 1998, Alan testified to Congress on the results of his comparison of the current policy vs. a sickest-patient-first national waiting list; shortly thereafter, Congress authorized the continuation of the current policy for a year pending and independent review by the National Academy of Sciences. This is a remarkable example of the definitive practice of simulation in addressing ultimate questions of life and death.

Many of us would not be here today if it were not for Alan. Just look at this small sampling of the lives he has touched. On the academic side of things, for instance, Bruce Schmeiser might never have decided to go to Purdue if Alan had not been doing simulation there. Jim Wilson would probably have ended up in a different field than simulation. Lee Schruben and David Kelton have told me that they might not have been where they are today without the foundations laid down by Alan. And then additional generations would never have been spawned: Barry Nelson, Keebom Kang, Enver Yucesan; the list goes on and on. On the applied side, Alan was doing things with simulation 25 years ago that have ultimately evolved into the bountiful variety of simulation languages that we see today. His ideas have certainly influenced generations of simulation language developers and modelers.

Clearly, in all ways, Alan has advanced the status of our field, so let's congratulate my wonderful friend on this outstanding achievement.