GERAD was created in 1980 by a small group of professors and researchers of HEC Montréal, McGill University and of the École Polytechnique de Montréal. In 1996, the Université du Québec à Montréal joined these three institutions. GERAD has fifty members (professors), more than twenty research associates and post doctoral students, and more than two hundred master and Ph.D. students.
GERAD is a multi-university center and a vital forum for the development of operations research. Its mission is defined around the following four complementarily objectives:
-The original and expert contribution to all research fields in GERAD's area of expertise;
-The dissemination of research results in the best scientific outlets as well as in the society in general;
-The training of graduate students and post doctoral researchers;
-The contribution to the economic community by solving important problems and providing transferable tools.
GERAD's research thrusts and fields of expertise are as follows:
-Development of mathematical analysis tools and techniques to solve the complex problems that arise in management sciences and engineering;
-Development of algorithms to resolve such problems efficiently;
-Application of these techniques and tools to problems posed in related disciplines, such as statistics, financial engineering, game theory and artificial intelligence;
-Application of advanced tools to optimization and planning of large technical and economic systems, such as energy systems, transportation/ communication networks, and production systems;
-Integration of scientific findings into software, expert systems and decision-support systems that can be used by industry.
In 2005, GERAD celebrates its 25th anniversary. One of the marking events of the 25th anniversary is the publication of ten volumes covering most of the Center's research areas of expertise. The list follows: Essays and Surveys in Global Optimization, edited by C. Audet, P. Hansen and G. Savard; Graph Theory and Combinatorial Optimization, edited by D. Avis, A. Hertz and O. Marcotte; Numerical Methods in Finance, edited by H. Ben-Ameur and M. Breton; Analysis, Control and Optimization of Complex Dynamic Systems, edited by E.K. Boukas and R. Malhamé; Column Generation, edited by G. Desaulniers, J. Desrosiers and M.M. Solomon; Statistical Modeling and Analysis for Complex Data Problems, edited by P. Duchesne and B. Rémillard; Performance Evaluation and Planning Methods for the Next Generation Internet, edited by A. Girard, B. Sansò, and F. Vásquez-Abad; Dynamic Games: Theory and Applications, edited by A. Haurie and G. Zaccour; Logistics Systems: Design and Optimization, edited by A. Langevin and D. Riopel; Energy and Environment, edited by R. Loulou, J.-P. Waaub and G. Zaccour.
