Our INFORMS PhD Student Chapter has been selected as a winner of the 2025 Student Chapter Annual Award as a Summa Cum Laude. Congratulations to the 2024-2025 Chapter board members, Lara Zebiane (President), Zhendong Li (Vice-President), Jingfu Tan (Secretary), and Xiaoyi Qu (Treasurer)! The Student Chapter Award Ceremony will take place October 27, 7:30-8:15pm at the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, OMNI Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park | North Tower | M4 - Grand Ballroom D|E.
Our PhD Student Chapter is hosted by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), which offers these awards annually to recognize the outstanding achievements of doctoral student chapters. Last year, there were 57 chapters, and only 6 
received the highest distinction. There are four award levels: Honorable Mention, Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, and Summa Cum Laude. Our trajectory has been increasingly positive over the last 10 years: we were at Cum Laude from 2014 to 2021, advanced to Magna Cum Laude in 2022,23,24, and now reached Summa Cum Laude in 2025. This award is also thanks to the recent efforts of all our previous student boards!
Beyond the activities annually organized by the chapter (including hosting distinguished speakers, a picnic by the lake, a potluck party, a Halloween party, and Secret Santa event), the 2024-2025 board introduced several major outreach initiatives. These included a knowledge exchange with Rutgers’ PhD chapter through mutual visits, a graduate student breakfast at Lehigh’s Graduate Life Office, and an enriched PhD Student Seminar featuring career and professional development presentations—all of which we hope to continue offering. In addition, President Lara Zebiane played a major role in advising the recently created USC's chapter and in designing the interior space of the new PhD Student Lounge.
Our chapter’s annual portfolio of events has continued to grow significantly over time. We are extremely pleased with this progress, as we believe these PhD student events foster a close and collaborative environment among students and faculty. Our INFORMS Chapter will explore ways to design plans that span multiple boards, ensuring a dynamic program that embraces new ideas and adapts to emerging trends.