History

 A Brief History of EUROPT

EUROPT was established with numerous founding members at a satellite meeting of the EURO XVII Conference in Budapest, July 16-19, 2000. EUROPT’s kick-off workshop, the Second IPM Workshop (IPM-2000, 2000), was organized just before the EURO meeting. In the sequel, we had two further EUROPT workshops: The second one took place in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, July 2001, before EURO XVIII and was entitled Smooth and Nonsmooth Optimization, Theory and Applications. Three years after, we celebrated our third annual meeting called Workshop on Advances of Continuous Optimization  in Istanbul, Turkey, July 2003, when Tamás Terlaky and Tibor Illés became our Honorary Coordinators, before the 5th EUROPT/INFORMS Joint International Meeting 2003. In July 2004, right before EURO XX, we had our fourth one entitled Workshop on Challenges of Continuous Optimization in Theory and Applications on Rhodes, Greece, and right after EURO XX, our 2-3 weeks of EURO Summer Institute XXII (ESI 2004) Optimization and Data Mining in Ankara, Turkey. Below we will closer come to our 17th EURO Mini Conference 2005 in Pécs, Hungary, our 5thEUROPT Workshop 2006 in Reykjavik, Iceland, our engagement at EURO XXI 2006 in Reykjavik, our ESI 2006 in Wittenberg, Germany, and to our various further engagement!

At those EURO conferences above, EUROPT organized sessions and semi-plenary lectures on continuous optimization. Moreover, after our various workshops and our ESI 2004, we preparated special issue of European Journal of Operational Research. Four EJOR special issues appeared already, some further ones will be published. To them, to the last one appeared and to further special issues in preparation, we will come below.

For 8th SIAM Conference on Optimization 2005 (Stockholm, Sweden), 2 mini-symposia were held  in the name of EUROPT, and a one closely associated with us. Furthermore, at IFORS 2005 (Hawaii), we had a session cosponsored. A series “Workshop on Sustainable Living in Rural Areas of Turkey intitiated in 2005 and a seminar series supported by us at METU (Ankara), should not be forgotten here.

In 2005, EUROPT celebrated its 5th anniversary at the occasion of the very enjoyable 17th EURO Mini Conference “Continuous Optimization in the Industry”,  Pécs, Hungary, June 29 – July 1, 2005.

After in 2004 engaged students – members of EUROPT – established the group “Young People for Operations Research in the Developing Countries” (YORC), EUROPT submitted a proposal for a new EURO Working Group “Operational Research for Development”. We were grateful that this proposal became accepted by EURO Executive Committee in July 2005! Furthermore, another application for a new EURO Working Group “Operational Research in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics and Medicine”prepared by us became accepted by EURO in February 2006! At the occasion of EURO XXI 2006 in Iceland, we celebrated the foundations of the two new sister EURO WGs. To their leaders and members we wish joy, success and that both new groups will bloom! EUROPT will further support them with devotion.

In 2005, EURO EC also accepted our proposal for a EURO Summer Institute “Optimization Challenges in Engineering: Methods, Software and Applications”  in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, August 18 – September 2, 2006. This ESI 2006 became one of EUROPT’s highlights in 2006, besides our 5th EURO Workshop “Advances in Continuous Optimization”, Reykjavik, Iceland, June 30 – July 1, 2006, and our rich engagement at EURO XXI 2006, Reykjavik, July 2-5, 2006. At the EURO conference, we were represented by 21 precious streams, some of them really pioneering in OR like, e.g., dynamical and anticipartory systems, data mining, electricity markets and optimization in financial mathematics, and a number of semi-plenary, tutorial and keynote lectures. At EURO 2006, EUROPT introduced a Managing Board. Furthermore, Florian Jarre left as the Coordinato and became Vice Chair; his successor and the new Chair became Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber who was the Vice-Coordinator before.

In 2005 and 2006, there were further scientific activities such as “International Symposium on Health Informatics and Bioinformatics” (Antalya, Turkey), “ISPRS 2005 Spatial Data Mining Workshop”, “Workshop on Complex Societal Problems, Sustainable Living and Development” (2 times), “Workshop of Geometric Morphometry” (all in Ankara) and 1st Summer School “Achievements and Applications of Contemporary Informatics, Mathematics and Physics” (Kiev, Ukraine), where EUROPT contributed to. For closer information please visit our links “Scientific events”, “Journals” and “Reports”. In 2006, EUROPT introduced the title and plate “EUROPT Fellow” of a year; Alexander Rubinov became our first year’s fellow.

Two further EJOR special issues appeared: “Optimization in Data Mining” (in 2006) and “Challenges of Continuous Optimization in Theory and Applications” (in 2007) both at the occasion of events mentioned above. A CEJOR special issue “Advances in Continuous Optimization” became published in 2007. Furthermore, an Optimization special issue “Continuous Optimization in Finance”, an MMOR special issue “Optimization Challenges in Engineering: Methods, Software and Applications” at to occasion of our ESI 2006, and an OMS Special Issue at the occasion our Joint EUROPT-OMS Conference 2007, are in preparation.

Indeed, in the year 2007, we and our friends prepared and celebrated “A Joint EUROPT-OMS Conference: 2nd Conference on Optimization Methods & Software and 6th EUROPT Workshop Advances in Continuous Optimization” Prague, Czech Republic, July 4-7, 2007, which was our largest event so far – there, we also honoured Georg Still who became EUROPT Fellow 2007! At EUROPT-OMS we had helpful and renowned partners whose name you can find by this homepage. We also gave a very strong engagement at the conference EURO XXII 2007, July 8-11, 2007, which followed. This engagement expressed itself, e.g., by more than 30 streams which we helped to prepare. That EURO became the biggest one in the series of EURO meetings with about 2000 participants. Furthermore, we supported another satellite event, “PhD Workshop on OR for Development”, Prague, July 7, 2007, and the prestigous conference INFORMS International 2007, Puerto Rico, July 4-7, 2007. Furthermore, we supported International Symposium on Health-Informatics and Bioinformatics, Antalya, Turkey, April 30 – May 2, 2007, “Workshop on Sustainable Living at Turkish Rural Countryside”, Ankara, Turkey, June 8, 2007, and “2st Summer School Achievements and Applications of Contemporary Informatics, Mathematics and Physics”, Kiev, Ukraine, August 4-20, 2007.

One expression of this role played by EUROPT consists in bringing national OR societies close together, e.g., the Hungarian and Turkish one with the German OR society. Further societies’ collaboration will follow.

In 2006-2007, EUROPT served for the preparation and finalization of both the EJOR and the CEJOR special issues “OR for Better Management of Sustainable Development” at the occasion of EURO XXI 2006 in Iceland.

In the year 2008, The 20th EURO Mini Conference “Continuous Optimization and Knowledge-Based Technologies”, May 20-23, 2008, Neringa, Lithuania, together with LitORS – the Lithuanian Operational Research Society, GOR – the German OR Society, and other partners, was one of EUROPT’s highlights. We were happy that EURO Executive Committee had accepted this special event – without any complain. Since we had a “EURO MC” not long a time ago (Pécs, Hungary, 2005), that approval by EURO EC implies a special acknowledgement and great honour for us. At this Mini-EURO 2008, we published ISI proceedings and two special issues have been published: in TOP (selected contributions), in Informatica and in Technological and Economic Development of Economy (Baltic Journal on Sustainability). At this special event, Kees Roos became EUROPT Fellow 2008, the third Fellow of EUROPT in its history. Moreover, the Managing Board of EUROPT changed; Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber left as the Chair (now Past Chair); his successor and the new Chair became Marco A. Lopez-Cerda who was the Vice Chair before.

In 2008, there are 8 further important events with EUROPT among the organizing societies. There were “Recent Developments in Financial Mathematics and Stochastic Calculus”, Workshop in Memory of Hayri Körezlioğlu, Ankara, Turkey, April 25-26, 2008, Workshop “The Simulation Tool Box for the Financial Engineer”, Ankara, Turkey, April 23-24, 2008, “International Workshop on Hybrid Systems: Modelling, Simulation and Optimization”, Istanbul, Turkey, May 14-17, 2008, Workshop on “Complex Societal Problems, Sustainable Living and Development”, Ankara, Turkey, May 16, 2008, “International Conference on Engineering Optimization” (EngOpt 2008), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 1-5, 2008, “International Conference on Power Control Optimization” (PCO’2008), Chiang Mai, Thailand, July 18-20, 2008, 4th Summer School Achievements and Applications of Contemporay Mathematics, Informatics and Physics (AACIMP-2008), Kiev, Ukraine, August 11-24, 2008, and “Mini EURO Conference on Computational Biology, Bioinformatics and Medicine”, Rome, Italy, September 15-17, 2008.

Furthermore, we supported 3 more events: IFORS 2008, 18th Triennial Conference of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies, Sandton, South Africa, July 13-18, 2007, furthermore, TC8/WG8.3 Working Conference “International Conference on Collaborative Decision Making” (CDM’08), Toulouse, France, July 1-4, 2008, and The Kerkenes Dag Project, Yozgat, Turkey, October 12, 2008. By the latter 2 events, we supported two “sister EURO working groups”.

In the year 2009, we have given a strong contribution to EURO XXIII 2009 – “23rd European Conference on Operational Research”, Bonn, Germany, July 5-8, 2009 (at this very important event, numerous streams served, many ones of them by EUROPT, its friends and members, again), but also to 7th EUROPT Workshop “Advances in Continuous Optimization”, Remagen (near Bonn), Germany, July 3-4, 2009, which will be a real core event of our group. At our celebrated workshop in Remagen, Adil Bagirov became our EUROPT Fellow 2009, the fourth annual fellow of our group! What is more we served for two other satellite events of EURO 2009 as mentioned in the following.

In fact, besides our highlights, EUROPT’s engagement in events of the year 2009 contained the following 6 ones: Workshop on Game Theory, Ankara, Turkey, January 30, 2009, A EURO ORD Workshop on OR for Developing Countries – Young Researchers and PhD Symposium, Remagen, Germany, July 4, 2009, State of the Art Workshop: Mutual Session of Special Researchers of several EURO Working Groups, OR and Development, Ethics, Decision Making, Methodology of Societal Complexity and Others, Remagen, Germany, July 5, 2009, 4th Summer School “Achievements and Applications of Contemporay Mathematics, Informatics and Physics” (AACIMP-2009), Kiev, Ukraine, August 5-16, 2009, 2nd Global Conference on Power Control and Optimization (PCO) 2009, Bali, Indonesia, June 1-3, 2009, and our support for ICCAM 2009 – 14th International Congress on Computational and Applied Mathematics, Antalya, Turkey, September 29 – October 2, 2009.

Moreover, it was a great honour that EURO Executive Committee accepted two more Mini EURO Conferences with the involvement of EUROPT: 5th International Vilnius Conference and EURO-Mini Conference “Knowledge-Based Technologies and OR Methodologies for Strategic Decisions of Sustainable Development” (KORSD-2009), September 30 – October 3, 2009, Vilnius, Lithuania, where we supported some other EURO working groups in their efforts, and, in particular, 24th Mini Euro Conference EurOPT 2010 – “Continuous Optimization and Information-Based Technologies In the Financial Sector” June 23-26, 2010, in Izmir, Turkey. This will become the third particular Mini EURO Conference in the history of EUROPT, and it will foster integration and impact of continuous optimization in financial mathematics and its practice.

In the year 2010, EUROPT celebrated its special “10 Years EUROPT Birthday” event, given by 8th EUROPT “Workshop Advances in Continuous Optimization” (Aveiro, Portugal, July 9-10, 2010). There, the EUROPT Management Board of EURO became renewed; the new Chair is Kaisa Miettinen, the new Vice Chair is Mirjam Dür. Furthermore, we honoured Yurii Nesterov who became EUROPT Fellow 2010; Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber became the third Honorary Chair of EUROPT. EUROPT gave a very rich and strong contribution to the prestigous event “EURO XXIV 2010” (Lisbon, Portugal, July 11-14, 2010), where we were very present in the Main Areas “Continuous Optimization”, “Optimal Control Theory & System Dynamics” and related ones, all of them with numerous streams and sessions, and by several Keynote Speakers. Moreover, there were several satellite events of EURO 2010, where EUROPT was actively involved and supportive: “EURO ORD Workshop on OR for Developing Countries – Young Researchers and PhD Symposium” (Lisbon, Portugal, July 10, 2010) and “State of the Art Workshop – a Workshop related to EURO XXIV / EUROPT / EURO ORD / EUROMSC / Ethics” (Lisbon, Portugal, July 11, 2010).

EUROPT is very grateful to EURO Executive Committee for having approved another great and special event of our group: 24th Mini Euro Conference EurOPT 2010 – “Continuous Optimization and Information-Based Technologies in the Financial Sector” (Izmir, Turkey, June 23-26, 2010).

What is more, EUROPT supported or coorganized the following events: “Symposium on Health Informatics and Bioinformatics (HIBIT) 2010” (Antalya, Turkey, April 20-22, 2010), “3rd Global Conference on Power and Optimization – PCO 2010” (Gold Coast, Australia, February 2-4, 2010), “4th Workshop on Optimization and Variational Analysis” (Elche, Spain, July 14-16, 2010); this special event has taken place in honour of Marco A. López, our previous EUROPT Chair, at the occasion of his 60th birthday. Furthermore, there were “3rd Conference on Nonlinear Science and Complexity” (Ankara, Turkey, July 28-31, 2010), “5th Summer School Achievements and Applications of Contemporay Mathematics, Informatics and Physics” (AACIMP-2009) (Kiev, Ukraine, August 3-15, 2010), “EngOpt 2010 – 2nd International Conference on Engineering Optimization” (Lisbon, Portugal, September 6-9, 2010) and “4rd Global Conference on Power and Optimization” (Kuching, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia, December 2-4, 2010).

We celebrated in 2011 the 9th EUROPT “Workshop Advances in Continuous Optimization” (Ballarat, Australia, July 8-9, 2011). This was the first of the annual workshops of EUROPT outside Europe. EUROPT was very grateful to the fact that by EURO that workshop became recognized, and with support granted. It was a satellite event of the following conference which we also supported: “IFORS 2011” (Melbourne, Australia, July 10-15, 2011). We also co-organized the “5th Global Conference on Power and Optimization – PCO 2011” (Dubai, June 1-3, 2011) and the 6th Summer School “Achievements and Applications of Contemporary Mathematics, Informatics and Physics” (AACIMP-2010) (Kiev, Ukraine, August, 2011). EUROPT also supported “The 21st International Conference on Multiple Criteria Decision Making” (Jyvaskyla, Finland, June 13-17, 2011).In 2012, EUROPT organized the 10th EUROPT “Workshop Advances in Continuous Optimization” (Siauliai, Lithuania) supported the “EURO XXV 2012” (Vilnius, Lithuania).

In 2008, we published the feature cluster issue Continuous Optimization in the Industry of EJOR (European Journal of Operational Research) at the occasion of the 17th EURO Mini Conference of the same name (Pécs, Hungary, June 29 – July 1, 2005), the special issue of CEJOR (Central European Journal of Operations Research) Advances in Continuous Optimization, at the occasion of the 5th EUROPT Workshop “Advances in Continuous Optimization” (Reykjavik, Iceland, June 30 – July 1, 2006), the proceedings Contributions of Workshop on Recent Developments in Financial Mathematics and Stochastic Calculus in Memory of Hayri Körezlioğlu (Ankara, Turkey, April, 25-26, 2008), on the CD of the workshop, the ISI Proceedings of International Conference EURO Mini Conference “Continuous Optimization and Knowledge-Based Technologies” (EurOPT-2008) (Neringa, Lithuania, May 20-23, 2008) (ISI: International Statistical Institute). Moreover, the special issue of the journal Mathematical Methods of Operations Research (MMOR) devoted to ESI 2006 – EURO Summer Institute ESI XXIV: Optimization Challenges in Engineering: Methods, Software, and Applications (Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, August 18 – September 2, 2006), and the special issue at the occasion of EURO XXII (Prague, Czech Republic, July 8-11, 2008) of the journal Optimization Methods and Software (OMS) appeared in 2008, too.

In 2009, the special issue OR for Better Management of Sustainable Development of European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR) at the occasion of EURO XXI (Reykjavik, Iceland, June 30 – July 1, 2006), supported by us appeared, and we finalized the 3 special issues, namely, of TOP (selected contributions), Informatica and Technological and Economic Development of Economy (Baltic Journal on Sustainability), respectively, at the occasion of our 20th Mini EURO Conference 2008 in Lithuania. The special issue Continuous Optimization in Finance of the journal Optimization appeared in 2009, too.

In 2010, EUROPT and its friends published DCDIS-B special issue on “Optimization and Dynamics in Finance” (coordinated by X. Sun), Organizacija special issue on “Recent Advances in Systems, Decision Making, Education and other Complex Problems”, special issue at the occasion of EURO XXIII 2009), AIP Conference Proceedings, “Power Control and Optimization”, Proceedings of the 3rd Global Conference on Power Control and Optimization (Gold Coast, Australia, February 2-4, 2010), and ISI Proceedings, “24th Mini EURO Conference on Continuous Optimization and Information-Based Technologies in the Financial Sector”, MEC EurOPT 2010 (Izmir, Turkey, June 23 – 26, 2010), selected papers. Further special issues and publications of and with EUROPT are: PCO 2010 Proceedings (“3rd Global Conference on Power, Control and Optimization”, Gold Coast, 2010) and special issues of the International Journal of Data Mining, Modelling and Management (IJDMMM), Computers and Mathematics with Applications (CAMWA), Advances in Fuzzy Systems (AFS), and others. Furthermore, the conference PCO 2010, Kuching, “4th Global Conference on Power, Control and Optimization” (Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia, December 2-4, 2010) had proceedings, and several special issues of journals also. At the occasion of “The 24th Mini Euro Conference EurOPT 2010” in Izmir, Turkey, there were further special issues of journals: Global Optimization and Applications of JOGO (Journal of Global Optimization), Advances in Continuous Optimization with Applications in Finance of Optimization, and one of TOR (Transactions on Operational Research, Publication of the Operational Research Society, Turkey). At the “3rd Conference on Nonlinear Science and Complexity” (Ankara, Turkey, July 28-31, 2010), which EUROPT supported, there were proceedings and a book “Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation” by Springer.

Many further events took place since then and can be found in our Newsletters.

We are going on with our collaboration and support for other EURO Working Groups and their activities, with integration of further research areas in EUROPT, our service via EUROPT homepage, e-Newsletter and the Managing Board of EUROPT, by appointing our EUROPT Fellows annually, supporting EURO in various activities, award and selection processes, supporting EJOR and further journals related to EURO’s member societies, and serving the collaboration and friendship between national OR Societies of EURO and in IFORS.

By all those well-appreciated events and our various further engagements, such as Seminar support at METU, Ankara, for and by further personal interest of colleagues, the number of EUROPT members increased to about 1100.