Sunday, June 19, 2011

[DMANET] Pre-doctoral position in safe vehicle routing @ University of Antwerp

At the University of Antwerp (Belgium), there is a vacant position for a
pre-doctoral researcher in operations research (vehicle routing) at the
Faculty of Applied Economics. 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 Sorensen 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 Sorensen 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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