Best Working Paper Award

2023 Winner(s)

Winning material: Competition in Optimal Stopping: Behavioral Insights

Purpose of the Award

The goal of this Competition is to highlight the best working papers in the area of Behavioral Operations.

The awards will be given annually at the INFORMS Annual meeting and will recognize papers as follows:

  • First prize (recognized with a certificate or plaque, and a $500 prize)
  • Second prize (recognized with a certificate or plaque)
  • Honorable mention (recognized with a certificate or plaque)

Application Process

View information about eligibility, procedures and deadlines
Click here for more information


Past Awardees

2023 Winner(s)
Ignacio Rios, Stanford University Pramit Ghosh, The University of Texas at Dallas
2023 Finalist
Maxime C. Cohen, McGill University Dmitry Mitrofanov, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University
Sandeep Chitla, New York University Srikanth Jagabathula, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gad Allon, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Daniel Chen, University of Pennsylvania Ken Moon, University of Pennsylvania
2023 Runner-Up
Jordan Tong, University of Wisconsin-Madison Kris Ferreira, Harvard Maya Balakrishnan, Harvard Business School
2022 First Place
Sebastian Villa, University of New Mexico
Rafael Escamilla, Kühne Logistics University
Jan Fransoo, Tilburg University
2022 Second Place
Laurens Debo, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth Maria Ibanez, Kellogg School of Management - Northwestern University Sina Ansari, Driehaus College of Business, DePaul University Seyed Iravani , Northwestern University Sanjeev Malik, Northwestern University
2022 Honorable Mention
Zhaohui (Zoey) Jiang, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
 John Silberholz , University of Michigan 
Yixin Iris Wang, University of Michigan
Deena Costa, Yale School of Nursing Michael Sjoding, Medical School, University of Michigan
Dmitry Mitrofanov, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University
Benjamin Knight, Instacart
2021 First Place
Park Sinchaisri, Wharton
Hamsa Bastani, University of Pennsylvania Osbert Bastani, University of Pennsylvania
2021 Second Place
Arturo Estrada Rodriguez, University College London
Rouba Ibrahim, University College London Dongyuan Zhan, University College London
2021 Honorable Mention
Qiuping Yu, Georgia Institute of Technology
Yiming Zhang, University of Washington
Yong-Pin Zhou, University of Washington
Özalp Özer, Amazon
Gloria Urrea , University of Colorado at Boulder
Sebastian Villa, University of New Mexico
Hengchen Dai, University of California Los Angeles
Xiaoyang Long, University of Wisconsin-Madison Dennis Zhang, Washington University in St. Louis
2020 First Place
Brett Hathaway, Johns Hopkins University
Evgeny Kagan, Johns Hopkins University
Maqbool Dada, Johns Hopkins University
2020 Second Place
Zhenzhen Jia, Fudan University
Kejia Hu, Vanderbilt University
Jian-Qiang Hu, Fudan University
Vishal Ahuja , Southern Methodist University
2020 Honorable Mention
Antonio Castellanos, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Galit Yom-Tov, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Yair Goldberg, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Bhavani Shanker Uppari, Singapore Management University Serguei Netessine, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Ioana Popescu, INSEAD Clarke Rowan, Harvard University
Frank Hage, Technical University of Munich
Sebastian Schiffels, Technical University of Munich
Martin Grunow, Technical University of Munich
2019 First Place
Michelle Shell, Harvard Business School

Ryan Buell
2019 Second Place
Michael Becker-Peth, RSM, Erasmus University
Kai Hoberg, Kühne Logistics University
Margarita Protopappa-Sieke, University of Cologne Germany
2019 Third Place
Park Sinchaisri, Wharton
Gad Allon, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Maxime C. Cohen, McGill University
2018 First Place
Andrew Davis, Cornell University Kyle Hyndman, University of Texas-Dallas
2018 Second Place
Ruthy Beer Ignacio Rios, Stanford University Daniela Saban, Stanford University
2018 Third Place
Daniel Feller Jordan Tong, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2017 First Place
Ruomeng Cui, Emory University
Jun Li, University of Michigan
Dennis Zhang, Washington University in St. Louis
2017 Second Place
Bhavani Shanker Uppari, Singapore Management University Sameer Hasija, INSEAD
2017 Honorable Mention
Eric Park, School of Business, University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong
Yichuan Ding, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia
Mahesh Nagarajan, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia
Eric Grafstein, Providence Health Care and Vancouver Coastal Health
2016 Winner(s)
Javad Nasiry, INSEAD Xiaoyang Long, University of Wisconsin-Madison Yaozhong Wu
2016 Second Place
Jingqi Wang Yong-Pin Zhou, University of Washington
2016 Honorable Mention
Evgeny Kagan, Johns Hopkins University
Stephen Leider, University of Michigan William Lovejoy, University of Michigan Ross School of Business
2015 Winner(s)
Ernan Haruvy Elena Katok, University of Texas-Dallas Valery Pavlov
2015 Second Place
Tim Kraft, University of Virginia León Valdés Yanchong Zheng, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2014 Honorable Mention
Vishal Agrawal , McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University Atalay Atasu, INSEAD Koert van Ittersum, University of Groningen
2014 Runner-Up
Stephen Leider, University of Michigan Andrew Davis