The objective of this travel support is to provide funding for underrepresented minority graduate students to attend the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) annual meetings for years 2007, 2008, and 2009. The students supported by this grant will be engaged in the doctoral colloquium of the education forum of INFORMS. Hence, the students will acquire the necessary professional development skills to become an integral part of the operations research and management science profession. In addition, the students will present their research at the conferences to disseminate their research to a broad audience in the profession. Therefore, the experience gained through the professional development, presentation of research and interaction with role models in the field will positively affect the students' persistence to obtain a doctoral degree and practice in the field.
If successful, the efforts supported by this grant will increase the number and diversity of operations research professionals. Also, the interaction of the students with known professionals in the field along with other students will assist in developing a network of colleagues to provide guidance to further their careers. The primary goal of this work is increase exposure minority graduate students to researchers in operations research and vice versa. The longer-term hope is that the students will enter into the professoriate.
