The School of Industrial and Systems Engineering celebrated the retirement of one of its long-tenured faculty, George Nemhauser, on April 30, recognizing an academic legacy that will continue impacting students into the future. 

To carry on his legacy, former Ph.D. students helped to establish a fellowship in his name, fundraising for an endowment fund that has surpassed $170,000 to date. That money will fund fellowships that will be awarded to students on an annual basis for years to come. It’s an appropriate way to honor Nemhauser, who said it’s the students who have been his greatest accomplishment. 

“All of my Ph.D. students, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “The whole career, having all these great students and seeing that they’ve appreciated me as well – that’s what it’s all about.” 

With more than 60 years of experience in research and higher education, Nemhauser has served various roles and committed his career to the betterment of his students, staff, and community. Throughout his career, he supervised almost 90 Ph.D. students and continued to explore his research in solving large-scale mixed-integer programming problems.  

Nemhauser’s career is connected with some of the best top-performing institutions and partnerships in the industry, including John Hopkins University, Cornell University, Oregon State University, University of Leeds (U.K.), University of Louvain (Belgium), University of Melbourne, (Australia), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National Research Council (NRC). Along with his long-term academic investment, Nemhauser has over 200 publications on topics such as optimization, programming, algorithms, transportation, structural properties, and operations research.  

After nearly 40 years of dedicated service to Georgia Tech, Nemhauser decided it was time for him to retire and was honored for his achievements by the school. Many of his students and colleagues highlighted their most memorable moments with Nemhauser and expressed their gratitude for his continued contribution to ISyE and beyond.  

As for Nemhauser, aside from staying in touch with his students, he said he plans on taking his retirement day by day.  

For more information or interest in contributing to the fellowship fund, please contact Senior Director of Development Nancy Sandlin at nancy.sandlin@isye.gatech.edu.