“Over 26 years ago, a young assistant professor at the Operations Research Center took a chance on me, signing off as advisor for my interdisciplinary PhD thesis on mathematical modelling of tonality. The committee was chaired by former Dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management William F Pounds. The thesis was then, and still is now, the only thesis on music awarded by the ORC.
That same year, this generous giant of a human being became the first person I know to win a Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE), the highest accolade for outstanding young scientists and engineers in the US; I was pleased to be able to follow suit a few years later.
A few days ago, I was honoured to attend and speak at a celebration in honour of this mentor and role model, Georgia Perakis, now the William F Pounds Professor of Operations Research, co-director of the ORC, and recent (interim) Dean of the Sloan School of Management.
Thank you, Georgia, for the trust you put in me, and for supporting my curiosity-driven academic passions which have now evolved to include medicine.” ~ Elaine Chew
Elaine Chew was Georgia Perakis’ first PhD student; Georgia signed Elaine’s PhD thesis on the eve of the year 2000. Soulaymane Kachani, Senior Vice Provost at Columbia University, can also claim this honour, as the first student to start his PhD with Georgia as superviser. Both were invited to speak at a Conference in Honour of Georgia Perakis at the MIT Samberg Conference Centre on Saturday, 14 March 2026.
The Institute’s leaders, Georgia’s former PhD students (34 graduated to date), colleagues, and industry partners were amongst those who attended the conference and dinners.
Georgia’s signature on Elaine’s thesis, together with those of her doctoral supervisor Jeanne Bamberger and then ORC co-director Cynthia Barnhart. A rare instance in Operations Research or Engineering where all three signatories were women. This was the first (and to date only) PhD thesis on music to have emerged from the OR Center; it also led to the first (and also to date only) book on music in the Springer ORMS Series.
Georgia’s celebration was also an occasion for Elaine to meet other former professors, including her Masters thesis supervisor, Dimitris Bertsimas.
Elaine was also super-proud to catch up with former student Anna Cheng-Zhi Huang, now an Associate Professor in Music and Theater Arts and in EECS at MIT, and to meet Anna’s Masters student and incoming PhD student Heidi Lei while at MIT.
