The Life and Scientific Discoveries of George Bernard Dantzig: 'Father of Linear Programming and Founder of Operational Research'
Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference: Quantitative and Qualitative Methodologies in the Economic and Administrative Sciences, Technological Educational Institute of Athens, pp. 251-259, 2009
9 Pages Posted: 16 Jul 2009
Date Written: May 25-27, 2009
Abstract
The purpose of the present paper is to describe the life and scientific discoveries of George Bernard Dantzig (1914-2005), as well as the environment in which he lived and worked. We describe, also the main discovery of Dantzig in the newly established scientific discipline of Operations Research, namely, the Simplex Method for solving Linear Programming problems. We mention in this paper the two scientists, namely: Tjalling C. Koopmans and Leonid V. Kantorovich, who have discovered similar methods for solving Linear Programming problems and they have been awarded jointly the Nobel Prize for their contributions to the Theory of Optimum Distribution of Resources. Finally, some comments on the life and work of Professor Dantzig are made.
Keywords: Simplex Method, Linear Programming, INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences), Operational Research, Nobel Prize
JEL Classification: B31, C44, N00, N01
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation