The Mathematical Programming Society has about 1200 members with only about 35% from North America. Our symposia are unique among professional societies in that we always have more attendees and more lectures than we have members. This underscores our emphasis on research.

I hasten to add that our name does not mean that all members of MPS program computers. The research done by our members spans the spectrum in a healthy and appropriate way from purest to most applied. A major thrust of our members’ research is in computer implementation of optimization algorithms. We have had a hand in all the most successful optimization software.