George B. Dantzig (1914–2005)

The final test of a theory is its capacity to solve the problems which originated it. This work is concerned with the theory and solution of linear inequality systems.... The viewpoint of this work is constructive. It reflects the beginning of a theory sufficiently powerful to cope with some of the challenging decision problems upon which it was founded. So says George B. Dantzig in the Preface to his book, Linear Programming and Extensions, anow classic work published in 1963, some 16 years after his formulation of the linear programming problem and discovery of the simplex algorithm for its solution. The three passages quoted above represent essential components of Dantzig’s outlook o