News
ORTEC employee appointed endowed professor at the Vrije University Amsterdam
23 November 2010
The Vrije University (VU) Amsterdam has appointed Dr. Joaquim A. S. Gromicho, R&D Algorithms manager at ORTEC, as endowed professor of Applied Optimization in Operations Research within the faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
Dr. Gromicho is a planning and algorithm specialist and for the past 14 years has been employed by the advanced planning software provider, ORTEC. During the last two decades, Dr. Gromicho has built up a strong international research network, releasing publications in various fields of optimization such as: linear and nonlinear optimization, with an emphasis on deterministic or stochastic data and discrete or continuous decision variables.
His most recent published work focuses on robust online optimization under uncertainty and its application to revenue management. In addition, Dr. Gromicho supervises master's theses for various universities, both in the Netherlands and abroad. Furthermore, he jointly supervised a number of recently graduated PhD students. Finally, Dr. Gromicho has primary responsibility for running a PhD in which scientific research is carried out in optimization techniques. This research is also applied to the ORTEC Logistics Suite.
As a member of ORTEC's management team, Dr. Gromicho is regarded as an inspiring leader by his work colleagues. Despite having been a part-time lecturer and researcher at the VU for more than 10 years, Dr. Gromicho is still highly motivated: "At ORTEC I work on a commercial and scientific level and at the VU I am granted the opportunity to expand my knowledge of applied optimization in Operations Research and pass this on to future generations. The combination of computer science and Operations Research is extremely effective, although there is still scope to improve this combination within various curricula. This is the main focus of my chair and this also very important for ORTEC. "
VU and ORTEC have a long-standing connection: Prof. Dr. Gerrit Timmer has held the Business Econometrics chair for quite a number of years already, while still managing to successfully combine this with his role as CFO of ORTEC. ORTEC not only maintains close links with the VU, but also with other educational organizations. For example, ORTEC sponsors the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and Logistics Director, Prof. Dr. Goos Kant, is extraordinary professor of logistics at the University of Tilburg.
In terms of rights and obligations, extraordinary chairs, such as the one that Dr. Gromicho will hold, are very similar to faculty chairs. "My chair is an extraordinary chair appointed by the board of trustees of the Vrije University Fund Foundation," said Gromicho. "The appointment of professor is the highest scientific honor that can be awarded."
About the VU University Amsterdam
The Vrije University Amsterdam is a state-funded university with about 23,000 students and 2,500 academic staff. With almost 60 Bachelor’s degree programs and over 100 Master’s degree programs, the VU Amsterdam offers a wide choice of study options.
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