[Zurück]

G. Tragler:
"Operations Research, Drugs, and Optimal Control";
Hauptvortrag: OR 2011, Zürich (eingeladen); 30.08.2011.

For several decades, Pontryagin´s maximum principle has been applied to solve optimal control problems in engineering, economics, or marketing. Early Operations Research applications of optimal control include problems such as production planning, inventory control, pollution control, queueing theory, or machine maintenance. Since the mid-nineties, optimal control models of illicit drug consumption have contributed to a better understanding of drug epidemics and their control via instruments such as prevention, treatment, or law enforcement. This talk explains why and how tools of dynamic optimization are used to address pressing questions arising in drug policy. Moreover, methodological advances in optimal control theory that have been triggered by solving these problems will be highlighted (e.g., multiple equilibria and thresholds, age-structured control systems, numerical analysis).