THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

CHAIR IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH

Applications are invited for a Chair in Operational Research. This is a new
position. The Chair will be held in the Department of Operational Research,
and is seen as an important strengthening of the Department. Applications
from those researching in any of the constituent areas of Operational
Research will be welcomed, with that field defined as encompassing
model-based approaches to the support of decision-making, rather than
applicable mathematics.

The closing date for applications is November 30th 2000. We are keen to make
an early appointment and it is hoped that the successful candidate will be
in post by 1st January 2001. It is intended to hold interviews on the 12th
December. For further information contact Professor Jonathan Rosenhead on
tel (+44)-20-7955 7637, or email [log in to unmask]

FURTHER PARTICULARS AND JOB DESCRIPTION FOR THE POST OF LECTURER IN
OPERATIONAL RESEARCH

1.	POST DETAILS

Post: Professor

Department: Operational Research

Closing date for the receipt of applications: 30th November 2000

Interviews:	It is planned to hold interviews with shortlisted candidates
at the School on December 12th, 2000.

Start date:	1st January 2001 if possible 

Details of post:	This post is a full-time permanent position in
principle to the age of retirement, located in the Department of Operational
Research at the School.

Salary: To be determined by the Director

2.	ORGANISATION

The post-holder is responsible to the Director of the School via the
Convener of the Department, who relies on the professoriat and other senior
members of the Department to advise him or her.

3.	JOB DESCRIPTION

This second chair in the Department of Operational Research is a new
position, and one which is seen as an important strengthening of the
Department. For this appointment, the overriding criterion is that of high
achievement in research. Expertise and contribution in any of the
constituent sub-fields of Operational Research (OR) will qualify an
applicant for consideration, with no prioritisation between them. While the
definition of OR will be taken broadly to include the growing points of the
discipline, it does not include fields which are better described as
applicable mathematics. The research fields of existing staff are described
in the Annex below.
 
The appointed applicant will be expected to play a full part in the general
teaching of the department - which includes introductory courses in basic OR
techniques and methodology, at Masters, undergraduate specialist, and
undergraduate non-specialist levels. The Masters degrees incorporate
compulsory practical student projects in external organisations which run
from June to September; all members of the department participate in
obtaining and supervising these projects. The Professor will be expected to
provide academic leadership within the Department, in conjunction with other
senior members. The Department functions as a team especially in carrying
out its teaching-related activities. Nevertheless the appointed applicant
will be expected to play a leading role in its management.

4.	GENERAL INFORMATION

4.1	The London School of Economics and Political Science

The London School of Economics and Political Science is an independent and
autonomous institution with the status of a School within the federal
University of London.  The School was founded in 1895 and since 1901 has
been incorporated under the Companies Act as a company limited by guarantee.
It occupies a compact site in the heart of London close to Westminster,
Whitehall, the City, the Law Courts and the media.  As well as the main
complex of School buildings in, and adjacent to, Houghton Street, the School
has eight halls of residence and a sports ground located in New Malden,
Surrey.  At present there are eighteen academic departments, five
interdisciplinary institutes, and several research centres.  The subjects
taught and researched are all in the sphere of the social sciences, broadly
conceived.  The School also houses the British Library of Political and
Economic Science, one of the finest collections in the world of social
science materials. Several chairs at the School are sponsored by business.
The School seeks to maintain close links with government, industry and the
professions (many of which are situated close by in the City of London,
Whitehall and the West End), through public meetings and seminar programmes
concerned with the dissemination of research findings in the context of
public policy.

The LSE is a collegial body that encourages and fosters interdepartmental
research. While most research is conducted by individuals, or by small
groups of collaborating researchers, a significant proportion is organised
in the form of projects or programmes, often under the umbrella of a
research unit or centre employing several research staff. There are
currently nineteen active research centres and units at the School, ranging
in size from large multidisciplinary centres with substantial financial
support to small centres with more modest resources. Most of LSE's research
centres and units are entirely financed by industry, commerce, research
councils or charitable foundations. The largest research centre is the
Suntory-Toyota International Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines
(STICERD) which is a wholly LSE-managed centre financing a wide variety of
research by members of the School's staff. In December, the School formally
launching an important  new Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Regulation
(CARR), and has appointed its first Chair in this area. Other appointments
are expected to follow related to this initiative, which has attracted
funding of over £10m from various sources including ESRC and Deutsche Bank.

The School has approximately 7,000 students, and is one of the largest
colleges in the University of London.  About half of the School's full-time
students are post-graduate, and over 40% of the student cohort are from
overseas. The School employs about 1,000 staff.  In the 1996 Research
Assessment Exercise the School was ranked second or third (depending on the
measures taken) in the UK with 83% of its staff in 5 or 5* units of
assessment.

Depending on the circumstances of the successful candidate, the School may,
at the Director's discretion, be able to offer assistance with relocation
and removal expenses, and a housing loan.  The School is unable to provide
housing for members of staff.  The person appointed will enjoy the
facilities and benefits open to full-time members of the academic staff of
the School.

4.2 The Department of Operational Research

LSE has had an Operational Research group for over 40 years. It became an
independent Department in 1997. The Department's strength, in teaching and
research, is its expertise across the spectrum of 'hard' to 'soft' methods
of operational research. The Department's teaching was rated 'excellent' by
the HEFCE quality assessment in 1994. In the 1996 Research Assessment
Exercise the two units of assessment in which departmental members were
entered were rated 5* and 5. The Department runs an undergraduate degree in
Management Sciences, and two postgraduate degrees in Decision Sciences and
in Operational Research. Our courses also attract large numbers of students
from other departments.

The existing established academic staff of the department consists of one
Professor, one Reader, three Senior Lecturers (two of which are joint
appointments with the Department of Statistics and the Interdisciplinary
Institute of Management respectively), two Lecturers, an unfilled vacancy
and a temporary Senior Teaching Fellow. In addition, three Visiting
Professors, a School Centennial Professor and a Junior Research Fellow are
based in the Department. From time to time there are also additional
research staff funded through outside research contracts. The Departmental
Convenor is Professor Jonathan Rosenhead.

The Department operates from attractive accommodation, located below the
Interdisciplinary Institute of Management, with which we have close
relations. The Department's facilities include a common room for students
and shared access to a seminar room.

Current research students are working on subjects that include: problem
structuring methods for knowledge acquisition; a community OR approach to
health service planning in a developing country; comparison of constraint
logic programming and integer programming; data envelopment analysis;
resource allocation to health care in Portugal.
 
The Department has formal links with LSE Health, which has developed over
recent years into a major research centre employing over 30 staff. The
Department was one of ten collaborating bodies in a multi-disciplinary
four-year study to evaluate the Total Purchasing Pilot by General
Practitioners in the NHS. This was financed by the Department of Health, the
Scottish Office and the Welsh Office and a book on this study is in press.
The Department is also one of five collaborators in a multi-disciplinary
three-year study evaluating the cost-effectiveness of mediation for
resolving disputes for separating and divorcing couples. This is part of the
Family Law Act of 1996, financed by the Legal Aid Board, and is due to
report next year. Another collaborative project has been established with
the University of Wales College of Medicine and Gwent Health Authority on
analysis of resource use, and variations in health and health care. Other
recent and current funded research projects concern the application of
Problem Structuring Methods to risk management, and to multi-organisational
decision taking.

Among the other activities associated with Operational Research at LSE are

·	an Advisory Board of senior practitioners who offer guidance on the
department's teaching and research strategy, as well as providing valuable
practical contacts;
 
·	a Departmental seminar series;
 
·	a Working Paper series providing a vehicle for early circulation of
papers by group members.


4.3	CONTACT

For further information about this post, please contact Professor Jonathan
Rosenhead on tel: 020-7955-7637, or email: [log in to unmask]


This job description sets out the requirements of the post at the time it
was drawn up.  The details of the duties may change over time without
changing the general character and purpose of the post or the level of
responsibility encompassed.

 
Annex: Research Interests of Academic Staff of the Department of Operational
Research 

Dr Gautam Appa (Senior Lecturer in Operational Research): linear
programming; mixed integer programming; combinatorics; data envelopment
analysis; location of undesirable facilities; robust regression.
 
Professor Carlos Bana e Costa (LSE Centennial Professor, Department of
Operational Research): multicriteria decision analysis; problem structuring;
strategic choice; preference modelling.
 
Mr Gwyn Bevan (Reader in Policy Analysis): reforming quasi markets for
health and legal services; variations in use of health services and in the
'avoidable' burden of disease; cost-effectiveness of mediation as an
alternative means of dispute resolution; costs and finance of teaching
hospitals.
  
Dr John Howard (Senior Lecturer in Operational Research and Statistics):
decision theory; social choice; game theory; foundations of statistical
inference; random sequences.

Professor Ailsa Land (Professor Emeritus of Operational Research): linear
programming and its extensions; analysis and formulation of operational
problems and the development of solution methods; data envelopment analysis;
'travelling salesman' and other combinatorial optimisation and routing
problems.
  
Dr David Lane (Senior Lecturer in Operational Research): Expertise: system
dynamics modelling; group decision support; participative modelling; problem
structuring methods; methodology choice; strategic decision making;
management games and simulations; systems thinking; social theory of systems
approaches; model validation.
  
Professor George Mitchell (Visiting Professor of Operational Research): the
use, practice and management of Operational Research.

Professor Lawrence Phillips (Visiting Professor of Operational Research):
strategic management; management of change in organisations; teamworking;
evaluation of options; prioritisation and resource allocation; decision and
risk analysis.
  
Dr Susan Powell (Lecturer in Operational Research): the development of
computer-based algorithms to solve linear and integer programs.

Dr Daniel Read (Lecturer in Operational Research): behavioural aspects of
human judgement and decision making; intertemporal choice.

Professor Jonathan Rosenhead (Professor of Operational Research): planning
methods under uncertainty; health services planning; problem structuring
methods; policy analysis; community operational research; operational
research in less developed countries; the history and social relations of
operational research.
  
Professor Maurice Shutler (Visiting Professor of Operational Research):
efficiency; performance measurement; monopoly; private medical
practitioners; privatisation; quality of service; air traffic services;
sewage; water.

Dr Peter Sozou (Junior Research Fellow): mathematical modelling of
discounting and evolution. 


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