The Faculty of Applied Economics has a fulltime position (m/f):

pre-doctoral researcher in operations research (vehicle routing)

The ideal candidate has a good background in operations research ( www.scienceofbetter.org ) and mathematics, including good programming skills and a good command of the English language.
The position is meant to conduct research on vehicle routing problems in which safety considerations are important. The work, which involves the implementation and testing of heuristic optimization strategies, will be carried out in close collaboration with Kenneth Sörensen and Johan Springael. The candidate is expected to enroll the university's Ph.D. program and to obtain a Ph.D. at the end of the project. A short project description can be found below. We offer a four-year position (with annual evaluation), a net monthly grant of over 1900 euro, and a stimulating working environment in a lively cosmopolitan city.

For more information, please contact Kenneth Sörensen at   kenneth.sorensen@ua.ac.be . Applications should be sent by email, and should include [1] a detailed CV including description of background in operations research as well as programming skills, [2] complete transcripts of bachelor and master degrees, [3] a motivation letter and [4] (if available) results on TOEFL/GMAT/GRE tests.

We are looking to hire a PhD student on short notice. Please apply as soon as possible.

Short project description

Vehicle routing is one of the most important topics in Operations Research and supply chain management. The aim of vehicle routing is to determine the order in which to visit a set of customers in such a way that the total distribution cost is minimized. In many situations, however, safety issues arise in the context of vehicle routing problems, especially when multiple transport modes can be used. This is especially the case in the chemical industry, in which safety is an extremely important issue and many different modes of transport are available (road, rail, waterway, sea, pipeline), each having their own characteristics in terms of safety.

The aim of this research is to study vehicle routing problems in which safety issues are important. These vehicle routing problems will be modeled and adequate solution procedures (mostly metaheurisitics) will be developed. The research will focus on real-life problems.

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