Business School professor receives a record third Goodeve Medal
Sally Brailsford, Professor of Management Science at Southampton Business School, has received her third Goodeve Medal from the Operational Research (OR) Society. The prestigious award is made to the author of the best academic paper published in the Society’s journal in the previous year. Sally is the first person to win three Goodeve Medals.
Sally’s paper was written with her former PhD student Dileep De Silva. It describes how they used OR to model the supply and demand for dentists in Sri Lanka between 2010 and 2025. Dr De Silva is himself a qualified dentist and now works at the Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka.
The OR Society’s citation says: “Sri Lankan dentists now have improved career prospects and more than one million people who previously had no access to care now visit a state dentist at least once a year. This paper describes an outstanding case study with a powerful impact.”
“I feel honoured and delighted to receive the medal,” says Sally. “The success of Dileep’s initiative shows the tremendous value of Operational Research in solving real-world issues in areas such as healthcare.”
Sally also received a Medal in 2004 for modelling emergency healthcare services in Nottingham and in 2006 for modelling chlamydia infection. Her former Business School colleague Professor Lyn Thomas, who died in July 2016, was awarded two Medals for his research into financial systems.
The medal is named in memory of Sir Charles Goodeve, one of the founders and pioneers of civilian Operational Research in the 1940s.