14 August 2018
EURO is the largest conference on operational research and science management in Europe, with attendees gathered from over 200 countries. Three awards are presented for papers published by EJOR each year: best survey paper; best application paper; and best theory/methodology paper. Winners for each category are selected by a jury and the awards are given at the closing session of the conference. EJOR is ranked 4th in the ABS Journal Quality Guide and publishes around 700 papers per year.
Dr Alem’s paper, which was co-authored with Alistair Clark and Alfredo Moreno, develops a new two-stage stochastic network flow model to help decide how to rapidly supply humanitarian aid to victims of natural disasters. It aims to address the fact that emergency logistics in disasters are fraught with planning and operational challenges, including uncertainty about the exact nature and magnitude of the problem, a lack of reliable information about the location and needs of victims, possible random supplies and donations, precarious transport links, scarcity of resources, and so on. The paper goes on to suggest that numerical tests based on recent floods and landslides in Rio de Janeiro show that the model can be used to plan and organise relief and provide good service levels in most scenarios, dependent on the type of disaster and resources available.
Many congratulations to Dr Alem on this excellent achievement!