Dr. Igor Linkov, senior scientific technical manager for the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Environmental Laboratory, was recently honored with the Edgeworth-Pareto Award by the International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM).

The Edgeworth-Pareto Award is the highest distinction that the International Society on MCDM bestows upon a researcher or practitioner in the MCDM field who has demonstrated a high level of creativity in developing novel areas of application of MCDM and associated methodology.

“I am humbled by this recognition. It is a great honor to join outstanding scientists who received this award in the past,” Linkov said. “I believe I am the first civil servant to receive this award. This is a clear recognition that ERDC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are at the forefront of research and practice in the field of decision analysis.”

MCDM is the study of methods and procedures by which concerns about multiple conflicting criteria can be formally incorporated into the management planning process.

The International Society on MCDM was formed to develop, test, evaluate and apply methodologies for solving multiple criteria decision-making problems. The Society fosters interaction and research in the scientific field of multiple criteria decision-making and cooperates with other organizations in the study of management from a quantitative perspective.

“This award is also a recognition of our capability to apply decision science to the world’s most intractable problems, including integration of social and physical science and engineering in responding to COVID, supply chain crises, infrastructure resilience and climate change,” Linkov said. “MCDM is one of the key technologies we will practice in our new Center of Engineering for Public Health and Human Factors.”