In my first job during high school, I worked as a dishwasher-I loved the job and the restaurant, Dot’s Diner, where I worked.  Because the experience was such a positive one, there was a long period in which I wanted to own a restaurant.  My first experience teaching statistics at a university resulted in a similar outcome.  I loved teaching and, almost from the beginning, I wanted to write a textbook.  Even though that was more than a quarter of a century ago, this text, Applied Management Science, represents my first attempt at doing so.  While I am confident that the text is not close to perfect, it has been designed specifically for you to learn some of the basics in the field of management science, the very class in which you are enrolled.  

Mathematics has always been a passion of mine.  My father and I would bore my family endlessly around the dinner table with discussions of probability and statistics.  Math was my major in college where I learned to prove theorems and experienced my first statistics course.  At graduate school in Oregon, I discovered applied mathematics in a course on operations research, which become the focus of my studies at Carnegie Mellon University.  The learning journey has continued through my professional career working at universities in Florida, Oregon, and now  California.  Learning is indeed a journey, and not every moment is easy, nor is every lesson enjoyable, but the assimilation of new concepts and skills is highly satisfying.  I believe you will find the content of Applied Management Science to be a stimulating and satisfying journey in learning.