Ed Peskowitz (1944-2026)

 After an eventful life, with major accomplishments in business and philanthropy, Ed Peskowitz succumbed to kidney failure this week.  I met him only after he had turned to philanthropy, and after he had received a kidney transplant.

Here's his obit in the Washington Jewish Week: 

Edwin Peskowitz 

"Ed was an extremely generous man who touched the lives of many. Over the course of his life, he and his wife supported local educational initiatives, such as the I Have a Dream Foundation and the SEED Public Charter School. Ed was passionate about promoting Middle Eastern peace and supported numerous causes in the region aimed at building understanding between various cultures and religions and he created the Friendship Games to encourage this among young athletes. He was a supporter of the Anti-Defamation League, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the University of Maryland.

Ed suffered from renal disease and was given the gift of life by an altruistic kidney donation in 2019. Ed devoted the last years of his life to creating and supporting philanthropic efforts, such as the Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation, Kidney Transplant Collaborative and Kidneys for Communities, to encourage living kidney donation and improve matches between potential donors and recipients." 

 

Privacy vs. security: doorbell cameras (and Ring's Superbowl ad)

There's a tension between privacy (some of it constitutionally protected)  and security, involving everything from street crime to terrorism, and citizen observers of government agents and others.  Cameras make a difference (even before facial recognition software), and the debate on how to reach a balance that yields appropriate safety in both dimensions is likely to continue.

 The NYT has the story, motivated by the Ring doorbell Superbowl ad:

Ring’s Founder Knows You Hated That Super Bowl Ad
Since the commercial aired, Jamie Siminoff has been trying to quell an outcry over privacy concerns with his doorbell cameras.    By Jordyn Holman

"The commercial showed a new Ring feature called Search Party, which uses artificial intelligence and images from its cameras to trace a lost pet’s wanderings across a neighborhood. Critics said the feature felt dystopian, showing the potential for far-reaching invasive surveillance. Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts and a critic of corporate data collection, called out “the serious privacy and civil liberties risks” in Ring’s technology. 

...

"The ad landed at a tense media moment involving home surveillance. In the search for Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of the TV news anchor Savannah Guthrie, law enforcement agencies were able to recover footage from her Google Nest doorbell, despite reports that she did not have a subscription to the device.

But Ring, which is owned by Amazon, is so ubiquitous that is has become a generic term for any doorbell camera, and users raised questions about how much Ring was monitoring them.

Mr. Siminoff took pains in his media appearances to clarify Ring’s privacy policies. He said his company does not store users’ footage if they don’t have a subscription with Ring.

...

"Mr. Siminoff defended his technology, saying that protecting privacy and providing useful tools for helping people are both possible. He said that he understood people’s concerns, and that maybe people were “triggered” by an image in the ad that showed blue rings radiating out from suburban homes. " 

Kidney exchange in India (one minute video)

In India, which already does the third most kidney transplants in the world (after the US and China), physicians and surgeons are making great progress on kidney exchange.

  Some of this progress is with the help of the Alliance for Paired Kidney Exchange (APKD), supported by a grant from Stanford Impact Labs (SIL)

 Here's a short video about that collaboration, narrated by Mike Rees, the founder and guiding light of the APKD.

 The picture below was taken just after Mike Rees (on the left) and I observed a robotic kidney transplant surgery performed by  Dr. Pranjal Modi (on the right), in Ahmedabad 

 

  

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Earlier:

Thursday, January 22, 2026  Kidney exchange in Brazil (a clinical trial)

 

50th Anniversary of Mathematics of Operations Research (and 50 papers, one for each year)

 MOR is a journal that published its first issue only two years after I finished my Ph.D., and Bob Aumann was the first editor of its Game Theory section. The 50 papers selected to mark its 50th anniversary, one for each year, are something of a history of operations research since 1976.

 The 1981 paper is Roger Myerson's famous paper on auctions.

I submitted my 1982 paper to MOR only after it was rejected by Chicago's Journal of Political Economy, with a letter from the editor, George Stigler, saying that the only economics in the paper was in the title. (He meant that market clearing in the model wasn't achieved by price adjustment.)  Matching markets have become a significant part of economics since then...

Editor’s Comments on the 50th Anniversary of Mathematics of Operations Research
Katya Scheinberg
Published Online:28 Jan 2026https://doi.org/10.1287/moor.2026.50th.v51.n1
 

"As we proudly celebrate the 50th anniversary of the journal Mathematics of Operations Research (MOR), we look back at its history and how it reflects the evolution of the field itself.

"The senior editors have prepared a list of 50 papers—one for each year—to represent this history. These papers are but a very small selection from an outstanding collection of contributions published by the journal over the past five decades. "

Augmented Lagrangians and Applications of the Proximal Point Algorithm in Convex Programming

RT Rockafellar

Mathematics of Operations Research 1976 1(2):97–116

New Finite Pivoting Rules for the Simplex Method

RG Bland

Mathematics of Operations Research 1977 2(2):103–107

Best Algorithms for Approximating the Maximum of a Submodular Set Function

GL Nemhauser, LA Wolsey

Mathematics of Operations Research 1978 3(3):177–188

Mathematical Properties of the Banzhaf Power Index

P Dubey, LS Shapley

Mathematics of Operations Research 1979 4(2):99–131

Some Useful Functions for Functional Limit Theorems

W Whitt

Mathematics of Operations Research 1980 5(1):67–85

Optimal Auction Design

RB Myerson

Mathematics of Operations Research 1981 6(1):58–73

The Economics of Matching: Stability and Incentives

AE Roth

Mathematics of Operations Research 1982 7(4):617–628

Integer Programming with a Fixed Number of Variables

HW Lenstra Jr

Mathematics of Operations Research 1983 8(4):538–548

Lipschitz Behavior of Solutions to Convex Minimization Problems

J-P Aubin

Mathematics of Operations Research 1984 9(1):87–111

Distributional Strategies for Games with Incomplete Information

PR Milgrom, RJ Weber

Mathematics of Operations Research 1985 10(4):619–632

Clique Tree Inequalities and the Symmetric Travelling Salesman Problem

M Grötschel, WR Pulleyblank

Mathematics of Operations Research 1986 11(4):537–569

Minkowski’s Convex Body Theorem and Integer Programming

R Kannan

Mathematics of Operations Research 1987 12(3):415–440

Cooling Schedules for Optimal Annealing

B Hajek

Mathematics of Operations Research 1988 13(2):311–329

Markov Chains with Rare Transitions and Simulated Annealing

JN Tsitsiklis

Mathematics of Operations Research 1989 14(1):70–90

Newton’s Method for B-Differentiable Equations

J-S Pang

Mathematics of Operations Research 1990 15(2):311–341

Scenarios and Policy Aggregation in Optimization Under Uncertainty

RT Rockafellar, RJ-B Wets

Mathematics of Operations Research 1991 16(1):119–147

The Generalized Basis Reduction Algorithm

L Lovász, HE Scarf

Mathematics of Operations Research 1992 17(3):751–764

On Adaptive-Step Primal-Dual Interior-Point Algorithms for Linear Programming

S Mizuno, MJ Todd, Y Ye

Mathematics of Operations Research 1993 18(4):964–981

A Polynomial Time Algorithm for Counting Integral Points in Polyhedra When the Dimension Is Fixed

AI Barvinok

Mathematics of Operations Research 1994 19(4):769–779

Fast Approximation Algorithms for Fractional Packing and Covering Problems

SA Plotkin, DB Shmoys, É Tardos

Mathematics of Operations Research 1995 20(2):257–301

Rounding of Polytopes in the Real Number Model of Computation

LG Khachiyan

Mathematics of Operations Research 1996 21(2):307–320

Self-Scaled Barriers and Interior-Point Methods for Convex Programming

YE Nesterov, MJ Todd

Mathematics of Operations Research 1997 22(1):1–42

Robust Convex Optimization

A Ben-Tal, A Nemirovski

Mathematics of Operations Research 1998 23(4):769–805

The Flatness Theorem for Nonsymmetric Convex Bodies via the Local Theory of Banach Spaces

W Banaszczyk, AE Litvak, A Pajor, SJ Szarek

Mathematics of Operations Research 1999 24(3):728–750

Mathematical Programs with Complementarity Constraints: Stationarity, Optimality, and Sensitivity

H Scheel, S Scholtes

Mathematics of Operations Research 2000 25(1):1–22

A Weak-to-Strong Convergence Principle for Fejér-Monotone Methods in Hilbert Spaces

HH Bauschke, PL Combettes

Mathematics of Operations Research 2001 26(2):248–264

The Complexity of Decentralized Control of Markov Decision Processes

DS Bernstein, R Givan, N Immerman, S Zilberstein

Mathematics of Operations Research 2002 27(4):819–840

A Comparison of the Sherali-Adams, Lovász-Schrijver, and Lasserre Relaxations for 0–1 Programming

M Laurent

Mathematics of Operations Research 2003 28(3):470–496

Selfish Routing in Capacitated Networks

JR Correa, AS Schulz, NE Stier-Moses

Mathematics of Operations Research 2004 29(4):961–976

Robust Dynamic Programming

GN Iyengar

Mathematics of Operations Research 2005 30(2):257–280

Integer Polynomial Optimization in Fixed Dimension

JA De Loera, R Hemmecke, M Köppe, R Weismantel

Mathematics of Operations Research 2006 31(1):147–153

Subsolutions of an Isaacs Equation and Efficient Schemes for Importance Sampling

P Dupuis, H Wang

Mathematics of Operations Research 2007 32(3):723–757

Facets of Two-Dimensional Infinite Group Problems

SS Dey, J-P Richard

Mathematics of Operations Research 2008 33(1):140–166

Minimal Valid Inequalities for Integer Constraints

V Borozan, G Cornuéjols

Mathematics of Operations Research 2009 34(3):538–546

Proximal Alternating Minimization and Projection Methods for Nonconvex Problems: An Approach Based on the Kurdyka-Łojasiewicz Inequality

H Attouch, J Bolte, P Redont, A Soubeyran

Mathematics of Operations Research 2010 35(2):438–457

The Simplex and Policy-Iteration Methods Are Strongly Polynomial for the Markov Decision Problem with a Fixed Discount Rate

Y Ye

Mathematics of Operations Research 2011 36(4):593–603

Online Stochastic Matching: Online Actions Based on Offline Statistics

VH Manshadi, S Oveis Gharan, A Saberi

Mathematics of Operations Research 2012 37(4):559–573

Robust Markov Decision Processes

W Wiesemann, D Kuhn, B Rustem

Mathematics of Operations Research 2013 38(1):153–183

Learning to Optimize via Posterior Sampling

D Russo, B Van Roy

Mathematics of Operations Research 2014 39(4):1221–1243

On the Convergence of Decomposition Methods for Multistage Stochastic Convex Programs

P Girardeau, V Leclere, AB Philpott

Mathematics of Operations Research 2015 40(1):130–145

Learning in Games via Reinforcement and Regularization

P Mertikopoulos, WH Sandholm

Mathematics of Operations Research 2016 41(4):1297–1324

A Descent Lemma Beyond Lipschitz Gradient Continuity: First-Order Methods Revisited and Applications

HH Bauschke, J Bolte, M Teboulle

Mathematics of Operations Research 2017 42(2):330–348

Error Bounds, Quadratic Growth, and Linear Convergence of Proximal Methods

D Drusvyatskiy, AS Lewis

Mathematics of Operations Research 2018 43(3):919–948

Quantifying Distributional Model Risk via Optimal Transport

J Blanchet, K Murthy

Mathematics of Operations Research 2019 44(2):565–600

Characterization, Robustness, and Aggregation of Signed Choquet Integrals

RD Wang, YR Wei, GE Willmot

Mathematics of Operations Research 2020 45(3):993–1015

Statistics of Robust Optimization: A Generalized Empirical Likelihood Approach

JC Duchi, PW Glynn, H Namkoong

Mathematics of Operations Research 2021 46(3):946–969

Entropy Regularization for Mean Field Games with Learning

X Guo, R Xu, T Zariphopoulou

Mathematics of Operations Research 2022 47(4):3239–3260

Distributionally Robust Stochastic Optimization with Wasserstein Distance

R Gao, A Kleywegt

Mathematics of Operations Research 2023 48(2):603–655

A Stochastic Sequential Quadratic Optimization Algorithm for Nonlinear-Equality-Constrained Optimization with Rank-Deficient Jacobians

AS Berahas, FE Curtis, MJ O’Neill, DP Robinson

Mathematics of Operations Research 2024 49(4):2212–2248

Stationary Points of a Shallow Neural Network with Quadratic Activations and the Global Optimality of the Gradient Descent Algorithm

D Gamarnik, EC Kizildag, I Zadik

Mathematics of Operations Research 2025 50(1):209–251

 

HT Itai Ashlagi 

Market Design in the Age of AI, this Friday at Stanford

 Market Design in the Age of AI
Friday, February 27, 2026 , 12:00pm - 6:00pm PST
Simonyi Conference Center, CoDa, 389 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305

The Market Design in the Age of AI Conference aims to catalyze interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation at the intersection of algorithm design, economics, machine learning, and operations research. As market platforms become increasingly complex and data-driven, this conference brings together leading thinkers from both academia and industry to explore how AI is reshaping the design, analysis, and regulation of modern markets.

Our goal is to foster a vibrant community that bridges research and practice—advancing both the theory and real-world application of intelligent, efficient, and equitable market systems. Over time, we envision the conference serving as a launch pad for novel marketplaces and platform innovations that emerge from these collaborations.

Agenda (draft)

Start Time	End Time	Session	Speaker(s)
12:00 PM	1:00 PM	Lunch & Registration
1:00 PM	1:15 PM	Opening Remarks	Amin Saberi, Professor of Management Science & Engineering, Stanford; Computational Market Design Center Director
1:15 PM	1:45 PM	Economic Mechanisms in the GenAI Era: Advertising Auctions and Marketplaces	Aranyak Mehta, Distinguished Research Scientist, Google
1:45 PM	2:15 PM	Carpooling and the Economics of Self-Driving Cars	Michael Ostrovsky, Professor of Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business
2:15 PM	3:00 PM	GenAI for Markets	Amine Allouah, My Custom AI, Custom AI James Biggs, Sr. Director of Marketplace Ads & Monetization Products, Upwork Yossi Feinberg, Professor of Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business Negin (Nikki) Golrezaei, Theresa Seley Associate Professor in Management Science, MIT Ruben Lobel, Product Data Scientist Lead, Waymo Okke Schrijvers, Research Scientist Manager, Meta
3:00 PM	3:15 PM	Break
3:15 PM	3:45 PM	TBA	Vahab Mirrokni, VP & Fellow, Google Research
3:45 PM	4:15 PM	Fireside Chat: The Economics of AI	Michael Schwarz, Corporate Vice President & Chief Economist, Microsoft Guido Imbens, Professor, Stanford University; Faculty Director, Stanford Data Science Amin Saberi, Professor of Management Science & Engineering, Stanford; Computational Market Design Center Director
4:15 PM	4:45 PM	TBA	Ronnie Chatterji, OpenAI Chief Economist; Duke University Professor of Business & Public Policy
4:45 PM	5:00 PM	Closing Remarks
5:00 PM	6:20 PM	Networking Reception & Posters	View the Poster Map

 

Organizers

• Negin (Nikki) Golrezaei, MIT/Stanford
• Amin Saberi, Stanford

Poster Session Committee

• Mohammad Asadi, HAI Graduate Fellow
• Grace Guan, SDS Alumna (PhD in Management Science and Engineering)
• Andy Haupt, HAI Postdoctoral Fellow