ORFE would like to extend a warm welcome new faculty, staff and visitors for the 2008-2009 academic year. This year, the department welcomes the appointment of Assistant Professor Philippe Rigollet and Postdoctoral Research Associates Yingying Li, Rui Song, Ramon van Handel, and Weiwei Wang. Visitors include Postdoctoral Research Associate Shaojun Guo of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Assistant Professors Martijn Mes of the University of Twente and Raghu Sangupta of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and Professor Andrzej Ruszczynski of Rutgers University.