IFORS 2023 - International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS)

The International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS) is a 60-year old organization which is currently composed of 50 national societies. Its beginnings date from 1955, when the vice-president of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) sent a proposal for an international conference to the secretary of the UK society, the Operational Research Society (ORS). The French Society, SOFRO, was added as a sponsoring society to what would be the first in a line of triennial conferences. This was the 1957 Oxford Conference, described by Maurice Kirby as the fifth of the seven defining moments in OR history (Cummins, 1998).