Dear alumni and friends,
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is David Williamson and on January 1, 2025 I started a three-year term as director of the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering.
I am following in the footsteps of interim director Adrian Lewis and two-term director Mark Lewis. I want to start this message by thanking them on behalf of the faculty, students, staff and alumni of the school.
Mark Lewis provided thoughtful and steady leadership over the five years of his directorship. Those five years included leading us through the massive disruptions of the COVID years, and for this fact alone he deserves our thanks. He also oversaw the expansion of school faculty at Cornell Tech; managed the school’s systematic update of its undergraduate curriculum; nominated and advocated for our faculty at all career stages to receive college and national recognition; and improved the school’s staffing and financial outlook. We are very grateful for all that he did. Many thanks, Mark!
Adrian Lewis stepped up unselfishly in July of 2024 as an interim when it became clear there would be a six-month gap in school leadership. Having served as director from 2010 to 2013, Adrian knew the assignment and carried it out with grace, wisdom and skill. Thank you, Adrian!
I am inheriting a school with brilliant faculty doing cutting-edge research while maintaining a strong commitment to teaching, a vibrant undergraduate student body with a zest for research and a strong community spirit, M.Eng. students who quickly become leaders in their workplaces, graduate students who are the intellectual future of the field, highly qualified and dedicated staff, and an alumni body proud of their affiliation and often eager to help the school in any way they can.
We are living in a golden age for the kinds of work that the school does. The value of using operations research and information engineering techniques to make decisions based on data is generally understood now in a way that it wasn’t before. Access to data for those decisions has become ubiquitous. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are transforming business and society more generally, and our work has a role to play in developing these technologies.
We are also facing unique challenges. Federal support for research at Cornell has been cut dramatically in the past several months. Several of our faculty have had grants cancelled, causing a loss of support for several of our Ph.D. students. As I write this, there is significant uncertainty about whether international students will be granted visas to enable them to attend Cornell this fall. We are navigating the situation with as much creativity and flexibility as we can muster.
It is a privilege for me to serve as director of this school. I hope you will reach out to me if you have questions or ideas you would like to share. I am grateful for your continued engagement.
Sincerely,
David Williamson
Director of the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering
Class of 1912 Professor of Engineering