Donald Holmes

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Donald Holmes received his bachelor's degree cum laude in mathematics from Juaniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and his M.S. degree in mathematics from Purdue University (Indianapolis, Indiana). He started his academic career at Emory University and continued at Georgia Institute of Technology. Later, he left the "Army Chemical Corps Inspection Division", where he worked as a chief inspector for about a year and a half, and joined the Operations Research and Synthesis unit at General Electric (GE) in Schenectady, New York, and provided consultancy services to the company on quality control engineering issues. He also pioneered production process simulation studies at GE as a business logic expert., Donald Holmes spent eight years in GE's Large Steam Turbine division as a member of the Operational Research group, during which time he served as a specialist in mathematics and statistics for the financial, manufacturing, marketing and engineering components of projects. Holmes played a key role in the early use of simulation in the preparation of factory production schedules at GE. During this period, he prepared a 36-week training program for GE with a group of experts and gave lectures in this training program. This program is essentially equivalent to the approach called “Six Sigma” today. On the other hand, as the regional representative of the "Cambridge Strategic Planning Institute", he supported and assisted companies and organizations in improving their financial performance. Prof. After working at GE for many years, Donald Holmes decided to return to an academic career, and after working temporarily at the State University of New York at Albany campus, he joined the Department of Industrial Management at Union College in Schenectady as a full-time faculty member. Throughout his academic career, he has lectured and conducted research as an expert on statistical process control techniques and the application of numerical methods to management systems. After joining Union College, he contributed to the establishment of the Management Institute at the university, took an active role in the launch of graduate programs on Operations Research and Health Management within the Institute, and also served as a doctoral thesis advisor in the Management and Engineering Systems program. Prof. Donald Holmes is also the co-inventor of the advanced control system marketed under the patent name “ProActive Process Control (PPI)”. While he was at Union College, he took sabbatical leave and served as a visiting professor at the University of Munich in Germany and then at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey. His visiting faculty membership at METU, Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Department of Business Administration started in the autumn of 1973. He gave courses on subjects within his field of expertise, such as System Analysis and Game Theory, and some of these courses were designed by Donald Holmes for the first time in the department. In addition to lectures, he also took an active role in research projects, and in those years he was also a guest lecturer in the Department of Business Administration. He conducted research on system entropy and Markov chains with Clifford Chedzey. Prof., one of the faculty members, who participated in another project on the same subjects. Muhan Soysal also actively participated. The results of these studies were published as separate articles in scientific journals. Prof. During his approximately 18-month tenure at METU, Holmes established very close and lasting friendships with his colleagues and students, and these relationships continued until his death. As a result, a group of METU students received master's and doctoral degrees from Union College. Prof. The private consultancy firm that Holmes founded under the name Stochos in Schenectady, NY in 1968, focused on the development and implementation of software in the field of statistical process control and also provided consultancy services to companies in the United States and other countries. Prof. In addition to his consultancy services, Holmes played a very important role in the formation and development of Stochos in terms of the development and marketing of technical products. With over fifty years of experience in quality control and operational research, he is recognized and accepted as an authority in the field of statistical analysis. After his retirement from Union Graduate College, where he worked as a professor in mathematics and statistics for many years, the university honored him with an honorary doctorate. A group of former students from Turkey also attended the award ceremony of this title and participated in the celebrations. Prof. Throughout his career, Holmes has published numerous articles as author and co-author and presented at local, national and international meetings and conferences. He has also been a permanent faculty member of the Center for Professional Advancement/Development in America and served as a member of the editorial board of Quality Engineering magazine. Prof. also holds a licensed quality control engineer certificate. Holmes was also honored as an executive member by the American Society for Quality for his contributions to the field of quality control.

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https://hdl.handle.net/11511/111565
https://bellek.metu.edu.tr/handle/11511/111565
https://memoriam.metu.edu.tr/prof-dr-donald-s-holmes/

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METU Bellek, Biography