As a young boy he was often invited to play the violin at a Philadelphia radio show for talented children.

After taking his Ph.D., Derman joined the Department of Industrial Engineering at Columbia University in 1954 as an instructor in Operations Research.

Dr. Derman was an excellent teacher at all levels who managed to make difficult ideas easy for students to learn.

He was also a dedicated and helpful advisor to 17 Ph.D. students and he has 260 descendants listed at the Mathematics Genealogy Project.

He also did significant work in optimal maintenance, stochastic assignment, surveillance, quality control, clinical trials, queueing and inventory depletion management among others.