Delbert Ray Fulkerson Prize Selection Committee

The Fulkerson prize for outstanding papers in the area of discrete mathematics is sponsored jointly by the Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS). Beginning in 1979, up to three awards of will be presented at each (triennial) International Symposium on Mathematical Programming; they will be paid out of a memorial fund administered by the American Mathematical Society that was established by friends of the late Delbert Ray Fulkerson to encourage mathematical excellence in the fields of research exemplified by his work.

To be eligible, a paper should be the final publication of the main result(s) and should have been published in a recognized journal, or in a comparable, well-refereed volume intended to publish final publications only, during the six calendar years preceding the year of the International Symposium on Mathematical Programming. The publication year for the paper will be defined to be the print publication year, for any volume that appears in print, or the electronic publication year, for any volume that appears only in electronic form. Extended abstracts and prepublications, and articles published in journals, journal sections or proceedings that are intended to publish nonfinal papers, are not included. The extended period of six years is in recognition of the fact that the value of fundamental work cannot always be immediately assessed. The prizes will be given for single papers, not series of papers or books, and in the event of joint authorship the prize will be divided.

The term "discrete mathematics" is intended to include graph theory, networks, mathematical optimization, applied combinatorics, and related subjects. While research work in these areas is usually not far removed from practical applications, the judging of papers will be based on their mathematical quality and significance.

The Selection Committee for the awards will have two members appointed by the Chair of the MOS and one member appointed by the President of the American Mathematical Society. The committee members will serve for at most two rounds of awards, with terms overlapping where possible for the sake of continuity. One of the Proposed initial Mathematical Optimization Society appointees will be the first chair of the committee; subsequent chairs will be chosen by the Prize Committee from among its members and should whenever possible be veterans of the previous round of awards. The Prize Committee will devise its own procedures for acquiring nominations or otherwise searching out papers of interest, taking pains, however, not to overlook the work of young, relatively unknown mathematicians. The first set of prizes, for papers published during 1973 1978 will be awarded at the 1979 Congress in Montreal.

Wording from Jan Karel Lenstra, Mathematical Programming Society, Inc., 3/23/93; Updated wording from Jan Karel Lenstra, Mathematical Optimization Society; 3/30/2023.