BALTIMORE, Nov. 12, 2025 – INFORMS, the world’s largest association for professionals and students in operations research, analytics, AI and data science, has awarded the 2025 Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in the Practice of Advanced Analytics and Operations Research to a team of researchers from George Washington University and the Meituan Group for the paper “Rebalancing and Pricing of Near-Expiry Inventory in Online Grocery Retail,” in which the Wagner Prize recipients developed and deployed a system for managing nearly-expired grocery store food.
Researchers partnered with Meituan, China’s largest on-demand service platform, to coordinate nighttime transshipment and dynamic pricing across thousands of micro fulfillment centers, reducing spoilage by 20% and improving profitability. Their research demonstrated how advanced analytics can transform perishable inventory from a loss driver to a source of profit and sustainability.
The team of researchers included Long He with Ziyuan Zhou and Zhengling Qi of George Washington University, alongside Guangrui Ma, Yuanbo Peng, Yushu Yao, Zhongyi Zha, Mingyong Zhao and Zhenyu Zhuo of the Meituan Group.
The prize winners were announced at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta.
Additional finalists for the 2025 award included:
More information about the Daniel H. Wagner Prize and the 2025 winning team is available here .
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