1. The 17^thbiennial conference of the Operations Research Society of China (national congress ORSC2024) was held in Guiyang from Oct 19th to 21st, 2024, drawing over 1000 registered attendees. This significant academic gathering was highlighted by insightful presentations and discussions.

The three-day conference program of the ORSC2024 consisted of 6 plenaries and 157 talks in 19 invited thematic sessions, covering almost all the OR/MS areas. The conference also conducted prize award ceremonies, young researcher forums, as well as election of the ORSC board members (term 2025-2028).

2. Hosted by ORSC, the 14th Triennial Conference of the Association of Asia Pacific Operational Research Societies (APORS 2024, https://apors2024. casconf.cn/) was successfully held in Hangzhou, China, from November 15th to 18th, 2024. Over 160 participants from 14 countries and regions enjoyed a rich and engaging program of scientific and cultural activities.

During the APORS conference, IFORS hosted a Tea Gathering for representatives of the APORS or IFORS member societies to meet each other, promote the work of IFORS, and provide information about IFORS for those interested in getting involved. An APORS council meeting was held to address several key agenda items, including bids for the next APORS conference, the election of APORS officers for 2025-2027, and ongoing and new initiatives to strengthen communication and exchange among APORS members, especially young operational researchers. It has been decided that the next APORS Youth Forum will be held in Hong Kong at the end of 2025, hosted by ORSHK. Additionally, the APORS 2027 conference will be hosted by the Australian Society for Operational Research (ASOR) in Perth, Australia.

3.ORSC Special Interest Group meetings and workshops

ORSC currently has 19 specialized working groups. During 2024, they have been active in convening annual meetings and/or workshops. The working groups that held annual meetings included: Mathematical Programming, Intelligent Algorithms and Computation, Healthcare, Stochastic Optimization and Operation Management, Uncertain Systems, AI and Data Sciences, Algorithms and Software, etc.

4.Publications

Currently, ORSC have three journals. Two of them are in Chinese: OR transactions (4 issues/year) and OR/MS (monthly), which only accept papers written in Chinese, the other is Journal of ORSC published with Springer (quarterly, EI). This is an English journal that aims at publishing internationally recognized work related to the theory and practice of operations research. ORSC calls for excellent original papers in world OR communities.

Editorials of the ORSC journals had several workshops online and in person to promote exchanges of ideas between authors and readers. The latest workshop was held in Guizhou in October 2024.

5.Planned activities in 2025

ORSC will convene its first national conference of young researchers in August 2025 in Taiyuan. The new ORSC council members will meet during the conference.

ORSC will organize a delegate of operational researchers to attend EURO2025 in Leeds this June. Before the EURO conference, a dedicated UK-CHINA joint workshop on operational research will take place in London from June 19–21, 2025. This workshop will be jointly sponsored by the ORSC and the Queen-Mary University of London.