A review of the Tom Rozwadowski medal

Abstract

The Tom Rozwadowski (TR) medal is the most prestigious award of the Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA). The award, first presented in 1971, was established in honour of one of ORSSA's founding members. Initially the medal was to be presented to a member of the society for a paper of most outstanding merit, but the rules were subsequently adapted and currently the medal is awarded to the best paper published during the previous calendar year. This review endeavours to present an analysis of all the award winning papers since its inception. The aim is three-fold, namely: to present a historical review, to detect any trends within Operations Research (OR) in South Africa and to present a view of OR in the country. The analysis indicates that these award-winning papers are very diverse in nature, which certainly epitomises OR in South Africa, but the sample is small and thus not representative enough to be used to draw strict conclusions about the evolution of OR in South Africa. The papers, in general, exhibit originality, quality and clarity of exposition while there is clear interaction between theory and practice.