刀根 薫

Professor Kaoru Tone is a Professor Emeritus at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Japan. He holds B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Tokyo and Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Keio University, Japan. He has served as professor at GRIPS, Saitama University and Keio University over 40 years. He was the President of the Operations Research Society of Japan, from 1996 to 1998. Professor Tone has achieved a high level of distinction both in Japan and internationally, and is known for being a world leading expert in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and performance evaluation. His contribution to DEA has a variety of attainments. He authored a classical book “Data Envelopment Analysis: A Comprehensive Text with Models, Applications, References and DEA-Solver Software,” under the co-authorship with Professor Cooper (University of Texas) and Professor Seiford (University of Michigan), published by Springer. He also published many papers on DEA in prestigious international journals, such as European Journal of Operational Research, Omega, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Journal of Productivity Analysis, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Annals of Operations Research, and International Transactions of Operational Research. He opened a new avenue for performance evaluation, called Slacks-based Measure (SBM). This model is widely utilized over the world. Recently, European Journal of Operational Research announced that the SBM model by Tone is among the 20 most cited papers among 14,617 papers during 1977-2017 (40 year Anniversary). His recent innovations include Network SBM, Dynamic SBM, Dynamic DEA with Network Structure, Congestion, Returns to growth in DEA, Ownership-specified Network DEA, Non-convex Frontier DEA, Past-Present-Future Inter-temporal DEA and Resampling DEA. He had served as Editorial Board member of Omega, The Journal of Data Envelopment Analysis, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, and Metamorphosis.
Furthermore, Professor Tone’s research activity has made significant impact in the public sectors. For example, the National Land Agency Japan Committee has adopted his proposed consensus-marking methodology to solve the site selection for relocating Japanese government agencies out of Tokyo. The committee has reported his conclusion to the Prime Minster of Japan at the end of December 1999. More recently, he acted as a specialist in designing the decision methodology for a government project on the site selection for the Next Generation Supercomputing Centre in Japan (cost about US$1.3 billion). Professor Tone proposed the use of Analytic Hierarchy Process and Assurance Region DEA models to devise the conclusion. The selection committee reported his recommendation to the RIKEN (an Independent Administrative Institute funded by the Japanese Government). On March 29, 2007, RIKEN announced to the public “The Winner is Kobe.” The “Supercomputer–K” is now in operation and takes consecutive top rank in world ranking.