Dr. Julian Keilson, 74, former adjunct professor of management at the Sloan School of Management, died March 8 in his home near Rochester, NY. He taught at MIT from 1986-92.
A specialist in applied probability, Dr. Keilson joined MIT's adjunct faculty after his retirement from the University of Rochester's William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration and of Statistics.
"Julian Keilson was a leading figure in the field of Operations Research," said Thomas L. Magnanti, dean of the School of Engineering and a founding co-director of the Leaders for Manufacturing Program. "He was one of a handful of individuals who led in defining the contemporary discipline of applied probability by creating, in the best spirit of MIT, sophisticated mathematics to address important applications.
"Julian, in particular, was an extraordinary model builder and analyst. Among his many talents, he was also a master chess player. My colleagues and I at MIT were privileged to know him as a faculty colleague and as a friend," Professor Magnanti said.
Dr. Keilson held the BS in physics from Brooklyn College and MA and PhD from Harvard University. An author of more than 127 papers, he published two books, Green's Function Methods in Probability Theory and Markov Chain Models -- Rarity and Exponentiality. This spring, Kluwer Academic Publishers will release Advances in Applied Probability and Stochastic Processes (edited by J.G. Shanthikumar and Ushio Sumita), which is dedicated to Dr. Keilson and his work in applied probability, stochastic processes and computational probability, among other fields.
He lived in the Rochester suburb of Brighton, NY, and leaves his wife, Paula; a son, David of Cary, NC; a daughter, Julia Craig of Webster, NV; a brother, Sidney of Potomac, MD; a sister, Marcia Harrington of Reno, NV; and eight grandchildren.
A version of this article appeared in the April 28, 1999 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 43, Number 28).
