This special series on “Doing Good with Good OR” is aimed at demonstrating how operations research can (and does) provide important insights that can be used to inform and shape public policy. We focus on three daunting societal challenges: energy and the environment; public health; and air congestion. Each focus area will feature a plenary presentation by a leader in the field, followed by a panel discussion involving key stakeholders from government and industry together with academic experts. The discussion is guaranteed to be lively, provocative and of keen interest not only to OR analysts and academics, but also to policy makers and the general public.
• Energy & The Environment
• Health Policy
• Aviation Congestion
Tuesday, October 14
Plenary: 10:00am-10:50am
Panel Discussion: 11:00am-12:30pm
 The world currently faces a number of crucial energy and environmental challenges--from oil security to local air pollution to global climate change to sustainable development. These challenges have all moved from being back page news to front page news over the last couple of decades, reflecting a growing sense of urgency for the development of solutions felt by both policy makers and the public. Policy makers at all levels--local, state, national and international--have long relied on OR/MS style models to provide insights into the choices they face. This plenary and panel will assess our experience in using models to inform energy and environmental policy making at the national and international levels. Since we are now moving closer to the carrying capacity of the earth's most vital life support systems--the atmosphere, the oceans, the ecosystems, etc.--the speakers will also identify the most important directions for future research for meeting the challenges we face.
Plenary
Philip R. Sharp
President, Resources for the Future
Former Congressman from Indiana, US House of Representatives
 Philip Sharp became President of Resources for the Future on September 1, 2005. His career in public service includes ten terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana, and a lengthy tenure on the faculty of the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Institute of Politics at Harvard University. Founded in 1952 as an independent and nonpartisan research institute, RFF is the oldest Washington think tank devoted exclusively to policy analysis on energy, environmental and natural resources. Dr. Sharp leads a research and administrative staff of more than 80 persons and oversees an institutional endowment of nearly $70 million. Prior to his service in Congress from 1975 to 1995, Dr. Sharp taught political science at Ball State University, was a Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and served as Director of Harvard’s Institute of Politics. He also was a Senior Research Fellow in the Environmental and Natural Resources Program from 2001 to 2003. Dr. Sharp was Congressional chair of the National Commission on Energy Policy, a panel established by the Hewlett Foundation and other major foundations to make energy policy recommendations to the federal government. The commission issued its findings in a major report, Ending the Energy Stalemate: A Bipartisan Strategy to Meet America's Energy Challenges, in December 2004. The report has been widely recognized as a comprehensive roadmap for future energy policy. During his 20-year congressional tenure, Dr. Sharp took key leadership roles in the development of landmark energy legislation. He was a driving force behind the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which led to the restructuring of the wholesale electricity market, promoted renewable energy, established more rigorous energy-efficiency standards, and encouraged expanded use of alternative fuels. He also helped to develop a critical part of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, providing for a market-based emissions allowance trading system. Dr. Sharp is a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, where he graduated cum laude in 1964. He spent the summer of 1966 at Oxford University and received his Ph.D. in government from Georgetown in 1974.
Panel Discussion
Moderators:
James Sweeney and John Weyant, Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University
Panelists:
• Brian McLean, Director, Office of Atmospheric Programs, USEPA Headquarters
• Howard K. Gruenspecht, Deputy Administrator, Energy Information Administration, US Department of Energy
• Jae Edmonds, Laboratory Fellow, Joint Global Change Research Institute
• Richard Richels, Director, Climate Policy Research, Electric Power Research Institute
Tuesday, October 14
Plenary: 3:10pm-4:00pm
Panel Discussion: 4:30pm-6:00pm
 The United States spends more per capita on health than any other nation, yet has worse health outcomes than many other countries. Moreover, expenditures on health in the U.S. are growing rapidly, and are taking up an increasingly larger share of per capita gross domestic product. Elsewhere in the world, some nations struggle with basic health issues such as sanitation and control of infectious diseases, while others are beginning to see epidemics of “Western style” diseases such as obesity, heart disease, and cancer. In all cases, resources for health are insufficient to meet the need for disease prevention and treatment, so difficult resource allocation choices must be made. In this special “Health Policy” track, we bring together experts from government and academia to present views on how operations research and management science can play a role in understanding and improving decisions about investment in health care. The plenary presentation and subsequent panel discussion will provide perspective on how OR/MS can help improve clinical decisions, health care operations, management of health care technology, and healthcare-related public policy – and thus help make the best use of limited healthcare resources both in the U.S. and abroad. The sessions will highlight the potential for operations researchers to “do good with good operations research” in this critically important area.
Plenary
Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D.
Director
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
 Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D., was appointed Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) on February 5, 2003. Prior to her appointment, she served as AHRQ's Acting Director since March 2002 and previously was Director of the Agency's Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research (COER). Dr. Clancy, who is a general internist and health services researcher, is a graduate of Boston College and the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Following clinical training in internal medicine, Dr. Clancy was a Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She was also an assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond before joining AHRQ in 1990. Dr. Clancy holds an academic appointment at George Washington University School of Medicine (Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Medicine) and serves as Senior Associate Editor, Health Services Research. She has served on multiple editorial boards (currently Annals of Family Medicine, American Journal of Medical Quality, and Medical Care Research and Review). She has published widely in peer reviewed journals and has edited or contributed to seven books. Dr. Clancy is a member of the Institute of Medicine and was elected a Master of the American College of Physicians in 2004. Her major research interests include various dimensions of healthcare quality and patient care, including women's health, primary care, access to care services, and the impact of financial incentives on physicians' decisions.
Panel Discussion:
Moderator:
Margaret L. Brandeau, Professor of Management Science and Engineering, and Professor of Medicine (by Courtesy), Stanford University
Panelists:
• Carolyn Clancy, M.D., Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• Peter Hartsock, Research Scientist Officer, National Institute on Drug Abuse
Wednesday, October 15
Plenary: 10:00am-10:50am
Panel Discussion: 11:00am-12:30pm
 The National Air Transportation System (NATS) and the airline industry are vital to the United States, and the economy depends in critical ways on the reliable, smooth functioning of the NATS. Recent studies suggest that the current NATS is on the verge of becoming unstable, with disturbance-induced congestion and delays likely to arrest growth and expansion, rendering the existing system unsustainable. In this special "Aviation Congestion" track, we bring together industry experts from the aviation industry, government and academia to present views on the many challenges associated with the provision of reliable air transportation in an increasingly congested aviation system. The plenary presentation and subsequent panel discussion will provide perspectives on the critical issues surrounding this topic, and will include discussion and debate on the possible problem resolutions. These sessions will reveal the tremendous complexity surrounding aviation congestion and will serve to underscore the potential for operations researchers to "do good with good operations research" by informing and shaping public policy on this critical issue.
Plenary
Dorothy Robyn
Principal,
The Brattle Group
 Dorothy Robyn is a principal with The Brattle Group, an economic research and consulting firm. Prior to joining Brattle in 2002, she was a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution. From 1993 to 2001, she was Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and senior staff member of the White House National Economic Council; her portfolio included transportation, aviation, aerospace and defense, science and technology, and competition. From 1983-1987, she was an Assistant Professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Dr. Robyn’s career has been devoted to analyzing, implementing and working to reform federal economic and regulatory policy. Her recent work has focused on issues in aviation and telecom characterized by political opposition to greater reliance on market mechanisms. In aviation, she has written on liberalization of international airline markets, pricing of airport and airway capacity, and reform of the air traffic control system. She recently completed a report for the prestigious Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution entitled, “Air Support: Creating a Safer and More Reliable Air Traffic Control System.” In 2006, she collaborated with William Baumol on a monograph, “Toward an Evolutionary Regime for Spectrum Governance: Licensing or Unrestricted Entry?” (Brookings Press), which argues for market-based allocation of wireless spectrum. Her first book, Braking the Special Interests: Trucking Deregulation and the Politics of Policy Reform (University of Chicago Press, 1987), analyzes a rare political battle in which the views of economists carried the day. Dr. Robyn has an MPP and PhD in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.
Panel Discussion
Moderator/Chair:
Jane F. Garvey,
Head of U.S. Public Private Partnerships in Transportation, JPMorgan
Former Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Lecturer and Research Scientist, MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics
Panelists:
• Daniel M. Kasper, Managing Director, LECG, LLC
• James M. (Jim) Crites, Executive Vice President of Operations, DFW Airport
• D.J. Gribbin, General Counsel, U.S. Department of Transportation
• Amedeo Odoni, T. Wilson Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT
• Dorothy Robyn, Principal, The Brattle Group |
