I spent 2007 visiting the University of Auckland, living on the wonderful (and strange) island of Waiheke, and I have about a thousand pictures online to prove it. We had a wonderful year, and loved the university, the island, the city, and the country. So it is with some jealousy that I note that Tava Olsen, formerly of Washington University, St. Louis, has taken up a position at the University of Auckland as the Ports of Auckland Chair in Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
Tava’s family also lived on Waiheke and we visited with her on the island a couple times during the year we were there. David Ryan, who has done great work in airline scheduling and branch-and-price, has a place on the island. Garrett van Ryzin lived on the island during his sabbatical year. With just under 8,000 people, Waiheke has to have one of the larger “output of operations research per capita” values in the world!
I think to celebrate her new Chair, Tava should invite all of us to Waiheke for a nice glass of wine. Congratulations, Tava!
Congratulations to Professor Olsen!
@Professor Trick:
It would be great if you could please write a post or two for those who are preparing to defend and go on the job market (or perhaps go on the job market first and then defend)
Any post about some career advice for those who want to pursue a career in academia would be a huge help
@siah Not to hijack the conversation away from Tava, I will post something. CMU operations research is hiring, by the way.
Indeed, I had noticed before the large number of OR academics who choose to spend their sabbatical in New Zealand… Wonderful to see how the University of Auckland has managed to position itself in the OR field.
Best wishes to Tava!
Congratulations to Prof. Olsen, sounds like a fantastic gig. NZ is a wonderful place, I have family there. Might be time for me to visit, and swing by Waiheke to conduct some supply chain research on company dime. 😉
We are indeed very pleased to have Tava and her family return to our shores to take up her new professorship. To welcome her back, we have invited Tava to follow in your shoes, Mike, by giving a plenary address at our Operations Research Society of NZ (ORSNZ) conference in Auckland later this year. Our other plenary speaker is Martin Savelsbergh, another recent US emigrant. We welcome overseas attendees to join us and perhaps spend some time exploring Mike’s Waiheke Island in person.