Alan Pritsker

A. Alan B. Pritsker (February 5, 1933—August 24, 2000) was an American engineer, pioneer in the field of Operations research, and one of the founders of the field of computer simulation. Over the course of a fifty-five-year career, he made numerous contributions to the field of simulation and to the larger fields of industrial engineering and operations research.

Alan Pritsker was born in Philadelphia to Robert and Gertrude Pritsker. He served on the faculties of Arizona State University (1962-69), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1969-70) and Purdue University (1970-98). In addition to educating many undergraduate-level students in hundreds of traditional academic courses and industrial short courses on simulation, Alan Pritsker compiled a superlative record as an adviser of graduate students. Of the eighteen doctoral students and over sixty master's students who completed their graduate work under his supervision, all are highly successful professionals in academia, government or industry.

From 1970 to 1973 he was also the director of Purdue's Center for Large-Scale Systems. During the 1970s and 80s, his activities at Purdue led to what many observers have called the "Golden Age of Simulation". He was a co-founder of Pritsker & Associates, Inc. (1973). He also served as the Board Chair of FACTROL, Inc. (1986–89). When Pritsker Corporation was created in 1989 through the merger of Pritsker & Associates and FACTROL, he served the new company as Board Chair and CEO (1989–91 and 1996–98) and as President and CEO (1991–96).

He cofounded the Operations Research Division of AIIE in 1968 and he served as the director of that division from 1968 to 1970. He also co-originated the AIIE Systems Engineering Conference in 1973. Alan Pritsker’s service to professional societies was not limited to IIE. From 1973 to 1979, he served the Society for Computer Simulation as the SIMULATION journal's area editor for combined discrete-continuous simulation. Elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1985, Alan Pritsker enjoyed the distinction of being the second industrial engineer to join that organization. For over fifteen years, he actively served the National Academy of Engineering in many positions of great responsibility. By his leadership in these various professional societies and governmental organizations over the past forty-five years, Alan Pritsker contributed significantly to the dramatic growth of the field of simulation as well as the larger fields of industrial engineering and operations research.

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