[IUFRO Div 3] Call for speakers to the OR in Forestry Cluster at 2015 INFORMS/CORS & 2nd edition of the David Martell Student Paper Prize in Forestry

Call for speakers to the OR in Forestry Cluster at 2015 INFORMS/CORS & 2nd edition of the David Martell Student Paper Prize in Forestry Together with the international meeting of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the next Annual Conference of the Canadian Operational Research Society (CORS) will take place in Montreal, QC, June 14-17, 2015 (http://meetings2.informs.org/montreal2015/). Jean-François Audy (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières) and Mikael Rönnqvist (Université Laval) will team up again this year for co-chairing the OR in Forestry Cluster. Based on previous successful editions (over thirty talks on average), following sessions will be organized: Forest Management Planning OR Applications in Forestry Forest Management Planning under Uncertainty Management of Forest Bioenergy Value Chains OR in the Forest Products Sector Forest Fire Management and Supply Chain Analysis Transportation and Wood Handling Educational tools in OR/MS applied to the Forest Sector Moreover, thanks to the support from the NSERC Strategic Research Network on Value Chain Optimization (www.vconetwork.ca), we co-organized two special events to be held within the OR in Forestry Cluster: i) experts’ tutorial on OR/MS in forest value chain, ii) 2nd edition of the David Martell Student Paper Prize in Forestry. Organized by the CORS Forestry Special Interest Group, this award recognizes outstanding scientific contributions on the theory, methodology and/or practice of OR in forestry/forest products industry by an undergraduate, a graduate student or a postdoctoral. The award was named in honor of Professor Martell for his outstanding contributions to the development and application of OR in forestry in Canada as well as for his many contributions to the CORS. The competition is for the best student paper published or accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal in the years 2013-2014 and no paper can be submitted more than once. At the time the paper was written, applicants should have been an undergraduate, a graduate student or a postdoctoral at a Canadian university or a Canadian studying in a university outside of Canada. Applications will be judged by a three members committee chaired by Professor Martell (University of Toronto) together with Professors Mikael Rönnqvist (Université Laval) and Jean-François Audy (UQTR). At most three finalists will be announced in beginning of March 2015 and these must highly preferably be prepared to present their paper in a special session at the annual conference. Recommended guidelines for each finalist presentation are: 15 minutes presentation in front of the jury and conference attendees, following by a 15 minutes questions period during which the session chair must provide a priority to jury members. The winner will be announced at the banquet of the Society. Thanks to the support from the NSERC Strategic Research Network on Value Chain Optimization (www.vconetwork.ca), the CORS conference registration fee of the finalists will be paid and the winner will receive a $300 award. Submission deadline: Applicants should submit a copy of their paper by January 20th, 2015 and indicate whether they intends to be present or not at the annual conference. All applications and questions should be sent to the President of the Forestry Special Interest Group, Professor Jean-François Audy at: jean-francois.audy(a)uqtr.ca. We are looking forward to your proposals. Best regards, Jean-François Audy & Mikael Rönnqvist, 2015 Co-Chair of the OR in Forestry Cluster