Thomas L. Magnanti, the dean of engineering at MIT and previously the codirector of the institute's Operations Research Center, is optimistic about the field's future. Until recently, most O.R. scholars worked either in business schools, where the field is usually called management science, or in departments of O.R. or industrial engineering. Now, he says, departments like mechanical engineering and electrical engineering are hiring O.R. specialists.
Magnanti calls O.R. "a liberal education in a technological world." Just as a classical education once prepared students for a wide range of endeavors, from theology and science to diplomacy and warfare, he argues, so the habits and tools of O.R. are widely applicable to contemporary problems.
"You can do finance today, manufacturing tomorrow, telecommunications the day after. You can move from field to field and make contributions that have impact on all those fields," says Magnanti. "We do health care. We do criminal justice. You name it, we do it."
