Ernest Forman

{{short description|American scholar}}

{{Infobox academic

| name = Ernest Forman

| image =

| birth_date =

| birth_place = New York City, USA

| nationality = American

| occupation = Scholar and academic

| title =

| awards =

| website = https://ProfForman.com/

| education = Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering
Master of Science, Management Science
Doctor of Science, Operations Research

| alma_mater = University of Rochester
Johns Hopkins University
George Washington University

| thesis_title =

| thesis_url =

| thesis_year =

| workplaces = George Washington University

}}

Ernest Forman is an American scholar and academic. He is a Professor of Decision Sciences at the George Washington University's School of Business.{{cite web|url=https://business.gwu.edu/ernest-forman|title=Ernest Forman - George Washington University}} He is a co-founder, along with Thomas Saaty, of Expert Choice and developed the first commercial implementation of the Analytic Hierarchy Process.{{Cite journal | last1 = French | first1 = S. | last2 = Xu | first2 = D. L. | doi = 10.1002/mcda.372 | title = Comparison study of multi-attribute decision analytic software | journal = Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis | volume = 13 | issue = 2–3 | pages = 65 | year = 2005 }}

Forman's work has been focused on executive decision-making, resource allocation, project portfolio management, risk analysis and risk management, operations management and statistics. He is the author of An Analytic Approach to Marketing Decisions, The Hierarchon: A Dictionary of Hierarchies, and Decision By Objectives: How To Convince Others That You Are Right.{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ernest_Forman|title=Ernest H. Forman - ResearchGate}}

Forman has seven patents related to decision-making and risk analysis to his name.{{cite web|url=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=0&f=S&l=50&d=PTXT&RS=IN%2Fernest+AND+IN%2Fforman&Refine=Refine+Search&Query=IN%2Fernest+AND+IN%2Fforman|title=US Patent & Trademark Office, Patent Full Text and Image Database}}

He is currently applying scientifically sound principles to investing in stock options and individually tailored investment portfolios.

Education

Forman received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester in 1964. He then studied Management Science and received his M.S. degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1968 before earning his D.Sc. degree in Operations Research from the George Washington University in 1974.

Career

Forman served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy and taught mathematics and electrical engineering at the U.S. Naval Nuclear Power School. Later, he worked at the MITRE Corporation, a think tank, where he conducted seminal research for the development of the ARPA computer network, which later evolved into the Internet.{{cite news|url=https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc300|title= ARPA Network Mailing Lists|newspaper= Ietf Datatracker|date= January 1972}} Forman then joined the faculty of The George Washington University where he is a Professor of Decision Sciences.

Research

Forman has worked on executive decision-making methodologies, resource allocation, project portfolio management, risk analysis and risk management, forecasting, operations management and statistics. He has also engaged in research, development and writing about the theory of measurement, corporate and public sector applications of decision analysis, strategic planning, and conflict resolution. Forman's later work involves R&D for improving risk assessment and risk management. He designed Riskion, a tool for risk assessment.

=Decision making and Analytic Hierarchy Process=

Forman has conducted major research in the area of decision making, focusing especially on a process called the analytic hierarchy process (AHP).{{cite journal|url=https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/opre.49.4.469.11231|title=The Analytic Hierarchy Process—An Exposition|year=2001 |doi=10.1287/opre.49.4.469.11231 |last1=Forman |first1=Ernest H. |last2=Gass |first2=Saul I. |journal=Operations Research |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=469–486 |url-access=subscription }} His often cited article in Operations Research, "The Analytic Hierarchy Process -- An Exposition", explained important aspects of the practical applications of AHP such as when rank reversal is desirable and when it is not and how AHP has been used in a wide variety of important, complex decisions.{{cite journal|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0167923692900038|title=Group decision support with the Analytic Hierarchy Process|year=1992 |doi=10.1016/0167-9236(92)90003-8 |last1=Dyer |first1=Robert F. |last2=Forman |first2=Ernest H. |journal=Decision Support Systems |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=99–124 |url-access=subscription }} Another often cited article "An Empirical Stopping Rule for debugging and testing computer software" was published in the Journal of the American Statistical Association.{{cite journal|url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0895-7177%2893%2990172-U|title=Facts and fictions about the analytic hierarchy process|year=1993 |doi=10.1016/0895-7177(93)90172-U |last1=Forman |first1=Ernest H. |journal=Mathematical and Computer Modelling |volume=17 |issue=4–5 |pages=19–26 |url-access=subscription }}

Most recently, Forman has addressed many of the shortcomings in today's practice of risk analysis and management. The result of his work is encapsulated in the Riskion tool for risk analysis and management which enables measurement of subjective objectives as well as the relative importance of the objectives in a way that make possible scientifically valid conclusions as to how to optimally allocate an organization's resources to manage risk.{{cite journal|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01621459.1977.10479951|title=An Empirical Stopping Rule for Debugging and Testing Computer Software|year=1977 |doi=10.1080/01621459.1977.10479951 |last1=Forman |first1=Ernest H. |last2=Singpurwalla |first2=Nozer D. |journal=Journal of the American Statistical Association |volume=72 |issue=360a |pages=750–757 |url-access=subscription }}

Bibliography

=Books=

  • An Analytic Approach to Marketing Decisions (1990) {{ISBN|978-0130352620}}
  • The Hierarchon: A Dictionary of Hierarchies (1996) {{ISBN|9780962031755}}
  • Decision By Objectives: How To Convince Others That You Are Right (2001) {{ISBN|9789814493949}}

=Selected articles=

  • Forman, E. H., & Gass, S. I. (2001). The analytic hierarchy process—an exposition. Operations Research, 49(4), 469–486.
  • Forman, E., & Peniwati, K. (1998). Aggregating individual judgments and priorities with the analytic hierarchy process. European journal of operational research, 108(1), 165–169.
  • Dyer, R. F., & Forman, E. H. (1992). Group decision support with the analytic hierarchy process. Decision support systems, 8(2), 99–124.
  • Dyer, R. F., Forman, E. H., & Mustafa, M. A. (1992). Decision support for media selection using the analytic hierarchy process. Journal of Advertising, 21(1), 59–72.
  • Forman, E. H., & Singpurwalla, N. D. (1977). An empirical stopping rule for debugging and testing computer software. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 72(360a), 750–757.

References