The Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA) (Afrikaans: Die Operasionele Navorsingsvereniging van Suid-Afrika (ONSA)) is the national, professional body tasked with furthering the interests of those engaged in, or interested in, operations research (OR) activities in South Africa.
The society is continually involved in matters which concern operations researchers, such as organising conferences at which papers on OR-related topics are delivered, drawing up guidelines for OR education, presenting short courses on specialist topics in OR, marketing OR at secondary school level, providing information to the public on the nature of OR, and providing information to students at tertiary level on career opportunities in OR.
On 18 April 1968 a meeting of individuals interested in OR was held at the Gatehouse at the Sunnyside Hotel in Johannesburg, as a result of initiatives taken by Dave Masterson, Jonathan Miller, Alan H. Munro and John C. Joslin with the support of Dr. H.S.
Out of this meeting a National Steering Committee was formed which would be responsible for the organisation of the possible establishment of an Operations Research Society in South Africa.
[4][5] The new society was privileged to get an excellent management team under the leadership of Dr. Sichel, who was known internationally for his work in mining statistics.
He and his wife and children went on a weekend outing to Annandale, near Minneapolis, where he was to address a meeting of the Roman Catholic Church on South Africa.
The second annual congress of ORSSA was held in November 1970 at Iscor in Pretoria, where Jos Grobbelaar was elected as the new President.
[7] The journal enjoys accreditation by the national Department of Education and hence qualifies for government subsidies to authors employed by academic institutions.
An interesting mixture between theoretical and applied work is published in ORiON, which welcomes contributions in the following four broad categories: Members of the Society automatically receive paper copies of this journal.
[8] Apart from snippets of OR-related news, general OR articles and advertisements which are of interest to members, notices of forthcoming activities and reports on recent conferences are contained in the Newsletter.
The volume contains a concise history of operations research in South Africa from its local inception during the late 1950s until 2018.
ORSSA has three accounts on social media, and frequently updates the Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages with the latest news.
This is the premier annual meeting of the Society, and apart from a rich and varied programme of presentations by both practitioners and academics, the conference usually also boasts a very enjoyable social component.
The medal is awarded for the best written contribution to Operations Research published by a member of the Society during the previous year.
A recognition award is a prestigious distinction and is reserved only for outstanding achievements and/or contributions typically over a long period of time.
Tertiary institutions may nominate candidates, based on a written Operations Research project of Honours or Masters (or similar) level.
These projects are evaluated by a panel of experts, and then a cash prize is awarded to the winner at the annual conference each year.
Entries consisted of three-minute science communication videos based on a research project, and were evaluated by a panel of experts.