UB School of Management Professor Honored

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A book honoring the work of Stanley Zionts, Alumni Professor of Decision Support Systems in the University at Buffalo School of Management, has been published by Springer-Verlag, Berlin, in conjunction with the International Society of Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM).

The volume was edited by Mark H. Karwan, dean of the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, together with two other leading scholars in the field of management science and decision-making: Jaap Spronk of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and Jyrki Wallenius of the Helsinki School of Economics, Finland.

Titled "Essays in Decision Making: A Volume in Honor of Stanley Zionts", the book was presented to Zionts last month on the occasion of his 60th birthday at the 13th international meeting of the society in Cape Town, South Africa. It contains 21 essays written by leading authorities in the field of MCDM that discuss the use of mathematical methods for solving real-world problems.

The book's introduction, written by the editors, states that, "...the personal contributions to research of Stanley Zionts are far-reaching. They range from mathematical programming to financial modelling to multiple criteria decision-making to negotiation modeling. ... Zionts ... has always maintained a healthy balance between theory and ... practice." A final article, written by Ramaswamy Ramesh, UB associate professor of management science and systems and Zionts' former student, describes Zionts' influence on MCDM research. "(Zionts') contributions to the profession, colleagues and the institutions for which he has worked has been tremendous...volumes could be written about his legacy to the field," writes Ramesh.

Zionts, a resident of Williamsville, is the founder and first president of the International Society of MCDM. He is a recipient of the society's Gold Medal and Presidential Service awards. He has published more than 100 articles and several books on various topics of management, generally in the areas of management science and MCDM. He also is an avid skier and a part-time ski instructor at the Holiday Valley Ski Area in Ellicottville.