Past Awards
The 2003 INFORMS Expository Writing Award is presented to Erhan Çinlar for his book Introduction to Stochastic Processes, published in 1975 by Prentice Hall.
Since it appeared, it has been the text from which generations of professionals have first learned stochastic processes. Professor Çinlar's clear writing and elegant notation have set the pedagogical standard for the field. With the benefit of historical perspective, we can claim that the book has withstood the test of time, as it still stands as a major reference in the field.
The clarity of Introduction to Stochastic Processes derives as much from clear mathematical thinking as it does clear writing. Already known for his original contributions to Poisson processes, Professor Çinlar provided what arguably remains the best introduction to Poisson processes in print today. He pioneered the point process treatment of Poisson processes, a treatment that has been universally adopted by authors since. His treatment of Markov processes was the first major innovation since Feller; here, for the first time, Markov processes are presented from the modern potential theoretic point of view. His introduction to optimal stopping problems remains an important reference over 25 years later in the field of financial mathematics. The presentation of Markov chains and elementary queueing theory focuses on precisely the right elements that provide the introduction a student needs for further study.
Throughout the book, Professor Çinlar's attention to clear notation, combining clarity and precision, gives students the most important education they need to work in the field of stochastic processes: the ability to speak the language properly.