# Omega Rho

Omega Rho (ΩΡ) is a North American scholastic honor society for students in the fields of operations research and management science. It was established in 1976 and became part of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) in 1998. Omega Rho has chapters in the United States and Mexico.

## History

Omega Rho was founded at the Institute of Management Sciences and Operations Research Society of America (TIMS/ORSA) joint national meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 1, 1976. It is an honor society to recognize students in the fields of operations research and management science and to support study in those areas. Its first president was Clinton K. Ancker Jr. from the University of Southern California.
It was admitted to the Association of College Honor Societies in 1983 with full membership in 1986. It became part of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) in 1998.
In 2012, Omega Rho had an active membership of 181 and a total membership of 8,069 As of 2024, it has 38 active chapters in the United States and Mexico. Its headquarters is in Catonsville, Maryland.

## Symbols

The colors of Omega Rho are blue and red. The symbols of the Society are explained in its Bylaws as being a saddle projection (~3D model) superimposed by a tapered, red arrow. Its motto is Ad Optimum per OMEGA RHO$^®$.

## Membership

Omega Rho is coeducational. Potential members are juniors, seniors, and graduate students who are must in the top 25 percent of their class, with a 3.5 GPA. Faculty can join as faculty members. Omega Rho also admits honorary members.

## Activities

Each fall, the society hosts the Omega Rho Distinguished Lecture at the annual INFORMS Meeting. Presenters of the plenary lecture include Anna Nagurney.

## Chapters

Following is a list of Omega Rho chapters.
| Charter date and range | Institution | Location | Status |
| April 1, 1976 | Case Western Reserve University | Cleveland, Ohio | Active |
| April 1, 1976 | Columbia University | New York City, New York | Active |
| April 1, 1976 | George Washington University | Washington, D.C. | Active |
| April 1, 1976 | Naval Postgraduate School | Monterey, California | Active |
| April 1, 1976 | New York University | New York City, New York | Active |
| April 1, 1976 | North Carolina State University | Raleigh, North Carolina | Active |
| April 1, 1976 | Southern Methodist University | Dallas, Texas | Active |
| April 1, 1976 | State University of New York at Buffalo | Buffalo, New York | Active |
| April 1, 1976 | University of Illinois Chicago | Chicago, Illinois | Inactive |
| April 1, 1976 | University of Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | Active |
| April 1, 1976 | University of Southern California | Los Angeles, California | Active |
| October 12, 1981 | University of Virginia | Charlottesville, Virginia | Active |
| November 3, 1981 | Purdue University | West Lafayette, Indiana | Active |
| October 25, 1982 | United States Naval Academy | Annapolis, Maryland | Active |
| April 25, 1983 | California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo | San Luis Obispo, California | Active |
| April 25, 1983 | California State University, Fullerton | Fullerton, California | Active |
| May 14, 1984 | Air Force Institute of Technology | Dayton, Ohio | Active |
| November 26, 1984 | Babson College | Wellesley, Massachusetts | Active |
| October 27, 1986 | George Mason University | Fairfax, Virginia | Active |
| October 27, 1986 | Saint Louis University | St. Louis, Missouri | Active |
| October 27, 1986 | University of Texas at Austin | Austin, Texas | Active |
| April 27, 1987 | University of Cincinnati | Cincinnati, Ohio | Active |
| May 1, 1991 | University of Massachusetts Amherst | Amherst, Massachusetts | Active |
| April 24, 1995 | Cornell University | Ithaca, New York | Active |
| April 24, 1995 | Portland State University | Portland, Oregon | Active |
| December 4, 1995 | United States Air Force Academy | El Paso County, Colorado | Active |
| January 2, 1996 | Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México | San Ángel, Mexico City, Mexico | Active |
| November 4, 1996 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Chapel Hill, North Carolina | Active |
| February 9, 2017 | Carnegie Mellon University | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | Active |
| April 12, 2018 | Georgetown University | Washington, D.C. | Active |
| January 1, 2022 | Bucknell University | Lewisburg, Pennsylvania | Active |
| 2002 | Arizona State University | Tempe, Arizona | Active |
| August 21, 2003 | Florida International University | University Park, Florida | Active |
| September 28, 2005 | Louisiana State University | Baton Rouge, Louisiana | Active |
| 2005 | United States Military Academy | West Point, New York | Active |
| September 27, 2010 | University of South Florida | Tampa, Florida | Active |
| July 28, 2012 | Saint Joseph's University | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Active |
| February 9, 2015 | University of Scranton | Scranton, Pennsylvania | Active |
| November 20, 2019 | University of Texas at Dallas | Richardson, Texas | Active |
| xxxx ?–20xx ? | Clemson University | Clemson, South Carolina | Inactive |
| xxxx ?–20xx ? | Miami University | Oxford, Ohio | Inactive |
| xxxx ?–20xx ? | Northwestern University | Evanston, Illinois | Inactive |
| xxxx ?–20xx ? | Oregon State University | Corvallis, Oregon | Inactive |
| xxxx ?–before July 2011 | Polytechnic Institute of New York University | Brooklyn, New York | Inactive |
| xxxx ?–before July 2011 | University of Delaware | Newark, Delaware | Inactive |
| xxxx ?–20xx ? | University of Maryland, College Park | College Park, Maryland | Inactive |
| xxxx ?–before July 2011 | University of New Haven | West Haven, Connecticut | Inactive |
| xxxx ?–20xx ? | University of Texas at Arlington | Arlington, Texas | Inactive |

## Notable members
### Collegiate and faculty members

| Name | Chapter | Notability | References |
| Steven Nahmias | | Professor of operations management at Santa Clara University | |

### Honorary members

Following are some of Omega Rho's honorary members.
| Name | Initiation date | Notability |
| Russell L. Ackoff | 1992 | Organizational theorist, consultant, and management scientist |
| Robert Bixby | 2007 | Professor emeritus of computational and applied mathematics at Rice University |
| Alfred Blumstein | 1988 | Professor at the Heinz College and Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University |
| Seth Bonder | 2004 | Engineer who made substantial contributions to operations research for the US military |
| Jonathan Caulkins | 2014 | Drug policy researcher and professor at Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University |
| Abraham Charnes | 1987 | Mathematician |
| Erhan Çınlar | 2003 | Probabilist and professor meeritus at Princeton University |
| David S. C. Chu | 1996 | US Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness and US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Program Analysis & Evaluation |
| William W. Cooper | 1997 | Founding president of The Institute of Management Sciences |
| Richard Cyert | 1985 | Economist, statistician, organizational theorist, and President of Carnegie Mellon University |
| George Dantzig | 1992 | Mathematical scientist known for his development of the simplex algorithm |
| Ralph E. Gomory | 1989 | Applied mathematician and IBM researcher and executive |
| Stuart L. Hart | 2005 | Academic, writer, and theorist |
| Karla Hoffman | 2013 | Professor of systems engineering in the Volgenau School of Engineering of George Mason University |
| Ronald A. Howard | 1999 | Emeritus professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University |
| Edward H. Kaplan | 2000 | Professor at the Yale School of Management, Yale School of Medicine, and Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science |
| Richard M. Karp | 1998 | Computer scientist and computational theorist at the University of California, Berkeley |
| George Kozmetsky | 1984 | Technology innovator who co-founded Teledyne Inc. |
| Gilbert Laporte | 2009 | Professor of operations research at Université de Montréal |
| Richard Larson | 1998 | Engineer and operations research specialist known for urban service systems and disaster planning |
| Judith Liebman | 2003 | Operations researcher, civil engineer, mechanical engineer, and professor emerita at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign |
| John Little | 1997 | Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Robert E. Machol | 1989 | Professor of systems at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management of Northwestern University |
| Thomas L. Magnanti | 2001 | Institute Professor and former Dean of the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| William L. Maxwell | | Professor of industrial engineering at Cornell University |
| Thomas J. Murrin | 1983 | United States Deputy Secretary of Commerce |
| George Nemhauser | 1987 | Professor of industrial and systems engineering at Georgia Tech |
| N. U. Prabhu | 1992 | Mathematician, known for his contributions to queueing theory |
| Alan Pritsker | 1982 | Engineer and one of the founders of the field of computer simulation |
| William R. Pulleyblank | 2001 | Professor of operations research at the United States Military Academy |
| James G. Roche | 2002 | 20th Secretary of the Air Force and executive with Northrop Grumman |
| Herbert A. Simon | 1986 | Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences |
| Robert M. Thrall | 1985 | Mathematician and a pioneer of operations research |
| John A. White | 1990 | Chancellor of the University of Arkansas and dean Georgia Tech's College of Engineering |