Subject to: Dominique de Werra

Описание: Dominique de Werra is an emeritus professor of Operations Research at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) in Switzerland. His research fields include Combinatorial Optimization, Graph Theory, Scheduling and Timetabling. After spending a few years as an assistant professor in Management Sciences at the University of Waterloo (Canada) he joined the Math Department of EPFL. He conducted a collection of Operational Research projects (applied as well as theoretical) with a number of industrial partners. He is an associate editor of Discrete Applied Mathematics, Discrete Mathematics, Annals of Operations Research and a member of a dozen of editorial boards of international journals. From 1990 to 2000 Dominique de Werra was the Vice-President of EPFL; he was in charge of the international relations and represented his institution in many academy networks in Europe (like the CLUSTER network of excellence which he chaired). He was also in charge of all education programs of EPFL. He was President of IFORS (the International Federation of Operational Research Societies) from 2010 to 2012. In 1987-1988 he was President of EURO, the European Association of Operational Research Societies. In 1985–1986 he was President of ASRO, the Swiss Operations Research Society. In 1995 he was the laureate of the EURO Gold Medal. He has obtained Honorary Degrees from the University of Paris, the Technical University of Poznan (Poland) and the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). In 2012 he was awarded the EURO Distinguished Service Medal. He published over 200 papers in international scientific journals. He also wrote and edited several books. He was member of many committees in various countries of Europe and America (evaluation of institutions, accreditation, strategic orientation, etc.).

Contents of this video:
0:00 - Intro
1:39 - Family background
2:33 - Motivation to learn how to count
3:32 - Early years
4:17 - Drawing
4:51 - Musical preferences
6:11 - Not so very fond of Math in school
6:39 - Physics Engineering at EPFL (1960-1965)
8:58 - Researcher in Würenlingen + spending +2 years in the army
10:43 - Learning about OR and PhD opportunity
12:32 - PhD on “Solving School Timetabling Problems with Graph Theory” (1966-1969)
14:54 - Meeting Combinatorial Optimization legends in 1969
15:58 - Becoming a faculty member at the University of Waterloo in 1969 thanks to Donald J. Clough
18:18 - Interacting with Jack Edmonds
19:12 - The divorce problem
20:19 - Frank Harary's anecdote
21:28 - Returning to Switzerland in 1971 to work at EPFL
26:04 - The rise of Green parties across Europe and their impact on EPFL students
28:07 - Attending the first EURO conference in Brussels in 1975
29:28 - Notable PhD students
32:15 - Collaboration with the Poznan University of Technology in machine scheduling and DNA graphs
34:06 - Collaboration with Peter Hammer, N. V. R. Mahadev, and Christian Ebenegger in pseudo-Boolean optimization
36:50 - Collaboration with a French professor of 18th-century literature
39:19: "Stories of the one-zero-zero-one nights: Abu Boul in Graphistan" by Peter Hammer
40:51 - Friendship with Claude Berge
44:38 - Co-authoring a paper with Vašek Chvátal by accident
45:50 - Collaboration with Fred Glover: using Tabu Search to solve Graph Theory problems
48:21 - Collaborations with researchers in Paris on several Graph Theory problems
49:51 - Writing multiple papers as a sole author
51:06 - Sports scheduling
53:24 - Main scientific contributions: establishing connections between Graph Theory and Scheduling
54:36 - Organizing a Graph Theory meeting with Pierre Hansen in 1980
58:01 - Having a workshop named after the title of Dominique's presentation
59:34 - On being president of EURO
1:00:58: Story behind the creation of the European Chapter on Combinatorial Optimization (ECCO)
1:03:23 - Influence of Alan Hoffman in terms of mathematical elegance
1:05:41 - Role played by the Swiss mountains in Dominique's academic life
1:07:47 - Retirement?
1:08:33 - On being president of IFORS
1:10:49 - Initiative connecting EPFL and Africa in the field of AI
1:13:12 - Promoting humor in mathematics
1:18:10 - The importance of "lying"
1:19:35 - Regrets?
1:20:34 - Plans for the future
1:21:09 - The joy of working with students
1:23:18 - Concluding remarks