John Little

John Dutton Conant Little (February 1 1928) [ [http://www.business.uc.edu/pdf/qaom/arnofflectures/file06.pdf Operations Research/Management Science, Marketing, and the Internet] , talk (May 15, 1997)] is an Institute Professor and the Chair Management Science at the MIT Sloan School of Management. [ [http://sloancf.mit.edu/vpf/popup-if.cfm?in_spseqno=69&co_list=F Little's bio at MIT Sloan] ]

Born in Boston, he earned a S.B. in physics from Massachussetts Institute of Technology (1948) and workedat General Electric (1948-50). His Ph.D. on "Use of Storage Water in a Hydroelectric System" used
dynamic programming, and advised by Philip M. Morse, was the first ever awarded in operations research (1955). [ [http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=63575 entry] at Mathematics Genealogy Project] Next, he taught at Case Western Reserve (1957-62) before joining the faculty at MIT (1962) where he since has worked.He was visiting professor at INSEAD (1988)

His earlier research in operations research involved traffic signal control, and gave him fame as he formed the Little's law in 1961. It states: "The average number of customers in a system (over some interval) is equal to their average arrival rate, multiplied by their average time in the system." A corollary has been added: "The average time in the system is equal to the average time in queue plus the average time it takes to receive service."Little is considered to be a founder of marketing science, [ [http://spectrum.mit.edu/issue/2006-summer/john-little/ John Little, The greatest of MIT's great faculty] from spectrum.mit.edu (summer 2006)] having conducted fundamental researchin models of individual choice behavior, adaptive control of promotional spending, and marketing mix models for consumer packaged goods.He has also started companies such as "Management Decisions Systems" and "Kana Software". The "John D. C. Little Award"is awarded annually by INFORMS. [ [http://www.informs.org/article.php?id=612 John D. C. Little Award and biography] from INFORMS]

Publications

*"The Use of Storage Water in a Hydroelectric System", Journal of the Operations Research Society of America, Vol. 3, No. 2 (May, 1955), pp. 187-197
*"A Proof for the Queueing Formula: L=λW" (1960).
*"Decision Support Systems for Marketing Managers" (1984)
*"The Marketing Information Revolution" (HBS Press, 1994). With Robert C. Blattberg and Rashi Glazer

Awards

*National Academy of Engineering electee (1989) [ [http://www.nae.edu/nae/naepub.nsf/Members+By+UNID/BF56C8764A7EB1048525693700546E44?opendocument biography] from nae.edu]
*Parlin and Converse Awards of the American Marketing Association
*honorary degrees from University of Liege and University of Mons-Hainaut
*Kimball Medal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
*Fellow of INFORMS and the American Association for the Advancement of Science
*Buck Weaver Award from MIT Sloan School of Management 2003. [ [http://mitsloan.mit.edu/newsroom/2006-little.php John D.C. Little honored with Buck Weaver Award for outstanding contributions to marketing] ]

References