Morton Klein

Morton Klein, who was influential in curriculum development for the field of operations research as an engineering faculty member at Columbia, where he taught for 45 years, died on Thurs., April 26. He was 75 and lived in Haworth, N.J.

Klein collapsed in his office on campus and died of an apparent heart attack. Over the years, in dozens of academic papers, Klein's research ranged from transportation problems and production scheduling to wage incentive plans and the scheduling of examinations for early detection of cancers.

One of his formulations to help companies minimize transportation costs is known as Klein's negative cycle-canceling algorithm, said Donald Goldfarb, chairman of the department of industrial engineering and operations research at Columbia's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, where Klein had been a guiding force for decades. "His devotion to the department and to his students for the past 45 years was extraordinary," said Goldfarb.

The mathematical foundation of industrial engineering, operations research was in its infancy during the late 1940s and 1950s. The field, developed largely as a response to the massive logistical difficulties faced by the Allies during World War II, applies mathematical methods to analyze complex problems in transportation systems, industrial and financial management, telecommunications and other fields.

In 1952, Columbia was among the first academic institutions nationwide to offer operations research courses within its industrial and management engineering department. In the same year, the Operations Research Society was formed at Columbia. Klein was then a graduate student in industrial engineering at Columbia, having served with the Navy during World War II in pre-flight training, and completed his bachelor's degree in 1946 at Duke. Joining the faculty as an instructor in 1956 and completing his doctorate the following year, Klein spent the next two decades building and expanding the curriculum in operations research, according to a colleague in the department, Cyrus Derman, now professor emeritus.

Klein, said Derman, was among the first researchers to apply quantitative methods to research in industrial engineering. Klein and Derman collaborated on a text, Probability and Statistical Inference for Engineers (Oxford University Press) in 1959.

Klein's efforts at Columbia resulted in the 1978 creation of the new department of industrial engineering and operations research. His work as a teacher and mentor nurtured a department that is now ranked among the best in the country.

He is survived by his widow, Gloria, and two daughters, Lisa Wager of Manhattan, and Melanie of Washington, D.C.