Each year the Society grants the award to a military operations research professional who is deemed to have played a major role in strengthening the profession. Dr Bernard O. Koopman was the second recipient of the Vance R. Wanner Memorial Award in 1979. This article was originally published in the May 1967 issue of Air University Review , and copies of the article are still being circulated at the Air Force Institute of Technology and elsewhere in the military OR community. Above all, he has seen and stressed the roots of analysis in the scientific method. He has underlined the importance of seeking simple and powerful models through long and disciplined thinking.
Computers can make some of the analytical tasks less tedious if properly used.
Unfortunately, some executives have been led to believe that computer simulation models can make decisions automatically. A related result is failure to educate analysts to think deeply about the formulation and search for simple models. Too many courses deal primarily with techniques. The use of case studies can show analysts how previous problems were approached successfully. Courses that include case studies and exercises requiring students to work on current problems can help them learn how to think about problems.