Forty years on: Challenges and successes

This paper is the Inaugural Address of the President of the U.K. Operational Research Society on 20 July 1994. The 40th anniversary of the Operational Research Society has prompted an informal survey of the successes of Operational Research over that period and the challenges still to be met. This triggers comments on the areas where the subject still needs development, including more concentration on publicizing the operational science aspects of the subject. Finally, the way the Society is shaping up to some of these challenges is discussed.