I am a huge fan of the Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Operations Research and the Management Sciences (best work in operations research practice) given by INFORMS. The applications are uniformly inspiring and the presentations go way, way beyond the norm for our field. The full papers, published every January in Interfaces, are ones that I actually look forward to (something I don’t do for my own papers!), and form a big part of an MBA course I teach here.
Being an Edelman finalist is a tremendous commitment: in addition to the full paper, the presentation generally requires the cooperation of a Cxx of the firm (for suitably high xx: EO is great!). Don’t try to get by with half-baked work here: you won’t get past the initial phase. But if you become a finalist (let alone a winner), the fame is worth it! This is a great opportunity to get the attention a level or three higher than you might otherwise (and give the Cxx the opportunity to brag on your behalf).
If you are doing operations research that is truly changing how an organization works, I strongly encourage you to enter it in the competition. The initial phase only requires a 2-3 page description. See the full details here. Deadline is October 21, so get typing!