Blackett Lecture 2024

2024's speaker

Anna Nagurney, Ph.D.

Talk Title: NetwORks and Policies: OR to the Rescue

Our economies and societies depend on networks from transportation and logistical networks, as well as supply chains, to energy and telecommunication networks, including the Internet. The modelling of such complex systems requires capturing the behaviour of their users. In this lecture, Anna described how OR has been applied to formulate policies as varied as tolls in congested urban transportation networks to tariffs, quotas and subsidies in the context of international trade, coalition formation among countries to manage human migration,  appropriate wages for workers, the setting of minimum quality standards in food supply chains and subsidies for farmers, including in wartime, and even the sharing of information for purposes of cybersecurity. She also highlight how her research in the COVID pandemic influenced blood supply chains in the United States.

Anna Nagurney is the Eugene M. Isenberg Chair in Integrative Studies at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Founding Director of the Virtual Center for Supernetworks. Prior to entering academia, Anna worked in the defence sector. She is the author of over 230 journal articles and has authored and edited 16 books. Anna is an INFORMS Fellow, an RSAI Fellow, and a Network Science Society Fellow and has been a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College at Oxford University. She has been a Fulbrighter twice and has been a Visiting Professor at MIT, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)  and Gothenburg University in Sweden, as well as Brown University. Anna is a Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Kyiv School of Economics and also serves on its International Academic Board. She has been recognized for her research with multiple awards and also for her work on mentorship of females with, for example, the WORMS Award. Anna is one of 44 females featured in the STEM Gems book.

2024's panelist

Lucy-Marie Hagues, MBE UK CEO, Head of International

Lucy-Marie Hagues, MBE, is CEO of Capital One UK and Head of Capital One’s International businesses.. Lucy was appointed UK CEO in 2020, having joined Capital One as a graduate trainee in 2000.

Lucy grew up in Oldham, and read Engineering at Girton College, University of Cambridge.

Her experiences at Capital One have taught Lucy to lead through a wide variety of roles and a time of great change.

Lucy is an advocate of maths as an enabler of financial and life success. She is a member of National Numeracy’s Leadership Council and chairs their Gender Taskforce. She was also a member of the Prime Minister’s Maths to 18 Expert Advisory Group and has recently completed her three year term as a Board member at UK Finance.

Lucy was recently awarded an MBE for her work on education and skills in the King's Birthday Honours List of June 2024.