Algorithms, Network Design and Analysis, Optimization

Office: 235 Rhodes

Phone: 607.255.5360

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Fax: 607.255.9129

Leslie Trotter earned his A.B. from Princeton in 1965, his M.S. in 1971 from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1973. He spent one year as a postdoctoral research associate with the Mathematics Research Center at the University of Wisconsin, and one and one-half years as an assistant professor in the School of Organization and Management at Yale University before joining the faculty of Cornell's School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering in 1975. Trotter was a visiting professor at the Institute for Econometrics and Operations Research of Bonn University in Germany (1977-79), at the Mathematics Department of Augsburg University in Germany (1987-88), and at the Applied Mathematics Department of the Swiss Technical Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland (1984-85, 1991-92, and 2000).

Trotter's general research interests are in the field of optimization with specific concentration in discrete optimization models. He does design and analysis of algorithms for integer programming and combinatorial optimization and is particularly interested in polyhedral combinatorics and software development of parallel computing algorithms and computational experimentation with large-scale discrete optimization models. His research interests include: the use of integer programming models in network design and in the analysis of flow efficiency in transport and data networks; models of efficient algorithmic exploitation of parallel computing networks; optimal component placement models for the design of communication networks; and optimal delivery patterns for commodity routing and distribution networks. Trotter has done considerable research on underlying abstract duality models for linear and integer programming, and on graph theoretic models, particularly structural and algorithmic properties of the stable set model.

Selected Publications

"On the maximum feasible subsystem problem, IISs and IIS-hypergraphs". Mathematical Programming (A) 95: 533-554 (2003). (With E. Amaldi and M. Pfetsch)

"On the capacitated vehicle routing problem". Mathematical Programming (B) 94: 343 - 360, edited by T.M. Liebling, D. Naddef and L.A. Wolsey. (2003). (With L. Kopman, T. Ralphs and W. Pulleyblank)

"Fully parallel generic branch-and-cut". Proceedings of the Eighth SIAM Conference on Parallel Processing for Scientific Computing  Minneapolis, Minnesota (1997). (With M. Eso, L. Ladanyi and T. Ralphs)

"Stability critical graphs and even subdivisions of K4".Journal of Combinatorial Theory (B) 59: 74 - 84 (1993). (With E.C. Sewell)

"An abstract linear duality model". Mathematics of Operations Research 14: 639 - 663 (1990). (With P. Carvalho)

Lectures

"Lecture series on integer programming". Workshops sponsored by the E.U. U. Grenoble, France (1998); Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany (2000); E.P.F.-Lausanne, Switzerland (2004).

"Maximum feasible subsystems of infeasible linear systems". T.U. Berlin (2000); Kyoto University, Japan (2003)
I.B.M. Research Center, Zurich, Switzerland (2005).

"Capacitated vehicle routing". Aussois, France (2002); National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan (2003).

Professional Activities

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

Mathematical Programming Society

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

University Activities

School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering: Director (1983 -87), Acting Director (2001 - 02), Associate Director (1981 - 83, 2003 - 06).

Co-director of the Advanced Computational Optimization Laboratory of the Cornell Theory Center (1994-2001).

Chair of the University Financial Policies Committee (2004 - 06).

Awards and Recognition

Alexander von Humboldt U.S. Senior Scientist Award (1987) Who's Who in America

Teaching Excellence Awards (1977, 1981, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998).