OR history

Today Dr. Saul I. Gass gave a talk about "How Did O.R. Get From There to Here? '. The content of this talk is from the book An Annotated Timeline of Operations Research. It is always interesting to hear the anecdote of famous people in the OR area. Most interesting point is made almost at the end of talk. Dr. Saul I. Gass shows a regression line of OR important activities over time. The most productive time for OR field is just after world war II. Now the trend of increases slows down.

My first response to this phenomena is due to powerful computer. Computer makes people 'dummy'. Also too many talent people may be attracted to IT industry.

After seminar, I think dissolved Soviet Union makes USA or even the whole west lack the motivation to do fundamental research. Without enough demand and abundance funding, researchers need to spend too much time to seek funding. I think research labs are even much important than universities.