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.