History
The ORSNZ was founded in 1965 by staff at the Applied Maths Division of the DSIR (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research), a government department based primarily in Wellington.We have a small collection of historic photos which were collected as part of our 2005 40th anniversary in Wellington, including:
1/ George Dantzig (Stanford Optimisation Lab) cutting our 21st anniversary cake, Aug-1985, with Bruce Benseman (President?), [jpg] and
2/ Jerry Brown (Naval Post-Grad College, Monterey), invited conference speaker, Aug-1987, again with Bruce Benseman. [jpg]
The comments for the following pictures were provided by Vicky Mabin (Jan 2008). These pictures featured in a picture quizz held in 2005 at the 40th anniversary of the ORSNZ.
1 APORS delegates, ORSA/TIMS Conference, Gold Coast: Tony Vignaux, Hugh Barr, Vicky Mabin.
2. 1999 Waikato conference: Hans Daellenbach and Michael Rothkopf – Keynote Speakers. Hans did a brilliant futuristic piece for his address, the conference theme was OR in the new millennium.
3. Canterbury Conference, 1992?
4. No details of this were given by Vicky Mabin. However, this photo was shown at the 2012 Conference in Wellington as part of a presentation of the Hans Daellenbach prize to E. Grant Read. Discussion confirmed this was at Canterbury, and was probably in 1992. This conference was coordinated with a skiing trip (which explains David Ryan’s tan! David is in front of Hugh Barr; Hugh is located rightmost in the back row.). The front row is ?, ? John Paynter, ORSNZ secretary, Grant Read (president at the time?), Hans Daellenbach, Les Foulds, ?, ?, ?
5. 2001, Canterbury OR Dept 30th Anniversary Re-union including John George (and wife), Hans Daellenbach, Anne Spence/Wein and Larry Wein, Vicky Mabin, John Raffensperger, Ed Silver?, John Giffin, Victoria Coad, Nick Winter?, Jenny George, Don McNickle.
6. Bruce Benseman and George Dantzig, August 1985, ORSNZ 21st birthday celebrations, organised partly by Vicky Mabin (especially the cake!) Don’t be misled by the fact that we had our 40th in 2005 – we missed a conference in 1997 due to APORS in Melbourne that year.
7. Joint conference with NZPICS in Wellington, 1991, organised by Vicky Mabin (President of ORSNZ, Chair of Wgtn Chapter of NZPICS, and Conference Chair).
8. Waikato? The speaker with Les looks like Saul Gass?
(Thanks to Bruce and John Hayes, Vicky Mabin, Karen Garner, and others I’m sure, for contributing these pictures.)
ORSNZ Logo
Lester Brian reports “The logo was selected from a competition by art students (from where? – perhaps Wellington?). I remember laying the entries out over the floor at more than one meeting.” (Email 26/11/2007) Our oldest newsletter (Feb 1970) includes in its AGM report: “Letterhead. The particular O.R. symbol was chosen as the arrows reflect a tension, and a choice between alternatives. It was agreed that we should express our appreciation for the quality of the work.”