The symposium Operations Research 2007 was held from September 5-7, 2007
at the Saarland University in Saarbru ]cken. This international
conference is at the same time the annual meeting of the German -
erations Research Society (GOR). The transition in Germany (and many
other countries in Europe) from a production orientation to a service
society combined with a continuous demographic change generated a need
for intensi?ed Op- ations Research activities in this area. On that
account this conference has been devoted to the role of Operations
Research in the service industry. The links to Operations Research are
manifold and include many di?erent topics which are particularly
emphasized in scienti?c sections of OR 2007. More than 420 participants
from 30 countries made this event very international and successful. The
program consisted of three p- nary,
elevensemi-plenaryandmorethan300contributedpresentations, which had been
organized in 18 sections. During the conference, the GOR Dissertation
and Diploma Prizes were awarded. We congratulate all winners, especially
Professor Wolfgang Domschke from the Da- stadt University of Technology,
on receiving the GOR Scienti?c Prize Award.