Professor Vicky Mabin awarded ORSNZ Hans Daellenbach Prize
Congratulations to Prof Vicky Mabin, who has been awarded the ORSNZ Hans Daellenbach Award for outstanding contributions to Operational Research in New Zealand.
The Hans Daellenbach Award was established to honour the considerable contributions of Emeritus Professor Hans Daellenbach to Operations Research/Management Science (OR/MS) in New Zealand. It is awarded to 'distinguished contributors of OR' for 'a body of OR/MS work that combines strong innovative methodology with practical impact that has made a significant contribution and received international recognition'.
Professor Vicky Mabin received the award for her work in Applied Operational Research, where she has been active not only as an academic, but in a variety of applied contexts for more than 30 years. She is a past president of the Operations Research Society of New Zealand (ORSNZ), and also a Fellow of the UK-based Operational Research Society.
Professor Mabin researches and teaches problem structuring, problem solving and decision-making methods that can be applied in public, private sector and not-for-profit organisations, at operational and strategic levels. Her research interests focus on Goldratt's Theory of Constraints (TOC) and how it may be used to focus performance improvements.
She has developed many applications of TOC on its own and in combination with multi-criteria decision making, project management, other operations research and operations management methods, systems thinking and 'soft' OR methods, and behavioural methods using framing and metaphor.
Professor Mabin's publications include The World of the Theory of Constraints: A review of the international literature, the lead chapter on the Thinking Processes in the Theory of Constraints Handbook, and many journal articles on related areas.
ORSNZ is a nationwide not-for-profit registered charity with the primary aim of promoting Operations Research and Management Science in New Zealand in both academia and industry.
As one of Professor Daellenbach's students at Canterbury University, Professor Mabin credits him with being a great influence in her choice of a career in Operations Research.