GERAD was created in 1980 by a small group of professors and researchers of HEC Montréal, McGill University and of the École Polytechnique de Montréal. In 1996, the Université du Québec à Montréal joined these three institutions. GERAD has fifty members (professors), more than twenty research associates and post doctoral students, and more than two hundred master and Ph.D. students.

GERAD is a multi-university center and a vital forum for the development of operations research. Its mission is defined around the following four complementarily objectives:

-The original and expert contribution to all research fields in GERAD's area of expertise;

-The dissemination of research results in the best scientific outlets as well as in the society in general;

-The training of graduate students and post doctoral researchers;

-The contribution to the economic community by solving important problems and providing transferable tools.

GERAD's research thrusts and fields of expertise are as follows:

-Development of mathematical analysis tools and techniques to solve the complex problems that arise in management sciences and engineering;

-Development of algorithms to resolve such problems efficiently;

-Application of these techniques and tools to problems posed in related disciplines, such as statistics, financial engineering, game theory and artificial intelligence;

-Application of advanced tools to optimization and planning of large technical and economic systems, such as energy systems, transportation/ communication networks, and production systems;

-Integration of scientific findings into software, expert systems and decision-support systems that can be used by industry.

In 2005, GERAD celebrates its 25^th anniversary. One of the marking events of the 25^th anniversary is the publication of ten volumes covering most of the Center's research areas of expertise. The list follows: Essays and Surveys in Global Optimization, edited by C. Audet, P. Hansen and G. Savard; Graph Theory and Combinatorial Optimization, edited by D. Avis, A. Hertz and O. Marcotte; Numerical Methods in Finance, edited by H. Ben-Ameur and M. Breton; Analysis, Control and Optimization of Complex Dynamic Systems, edited by E.K. Boukas and R. Malhamé; Column Generation, edited by G. Desaulniers, J. Desrosiers and M.M. Solomon; Statistical Modeling and Analysis for Complex Data Problems, edited by P. Duchesne and B. Rémillard; Performance Evaluation and Planning Methods for the Next Generation Internet, edited by A. Girard, B. Sansò, and F. Vásquez-Abad; Dynamic Games: Theory and Applications, edited by A. Haurie and G. Zaccour; Logistics Systems: Design and Optimization, edited by A. Langevin and D. Riopel; Energy and Environment, edited by R. Loulou, J.-P. Waaub and G. Zaccour.