2005 Transportation Science and Logistics Society Dissertation Prize Competition

The Transportation Science and Logistics (TSL) Society Dissertation Prize Competition is the oldest and most prestigious competition for doctoral dissertations in the field. The 2005 TSL dissertation prize committee consisted of Professor Donald Hearn (University of Florida), Professor Ben Heydecker (University College, London), Professor Mark Hickman (University of Arizona), Professor Andrew Philpott (University of Auckland), and Professor Randolph Hall (University of Southern California).Eligibility was limited to doctoral dissertations completed between June 1, 2004, and May 31, 2005, in the general area of transportation science and logistics. To be considered, a dissertation must be nominated by the author’s thesis supervisor. This year we received 15 nominations from 14 universities, representing such diverse areas as vehicle routing, traffic modeling, supply chain management, traveler behavior, and vehicle control. Dissertations were submitted from seven countries. This year’s pool of dissertations was exceptional in depth and creativity, and it was not easy for the committee to select a first place winner and an honorable mention. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the authors, thesis supervisors, and prize committee for making this a truly significant contest, honoring transportation’s most outstanding new researchers. Awards were announced at the TSL meeting at the 2005 INFORMS Meeting in San Francisco.It is important to remember that submissions to the TSL dissertation prize committee are distinguished by the fact that they were nominated for the award. Each dissertation makes a unique and valuable contribution to transportation science and logistics, and all entrants and their advisors deserve warmest congratulations.Abstracts for the 15 dissertations follow; awardees are listed first and finalists’ abstracts follow in alphabetical order by author.First place: Luigi Moccia, Università della Calabria, Italy. Advisors: Manlio Gaudioso, Gilbert Laporte, and Jean-François Cordeau. Title: “New Optimization Models and Algorithms for the Management of Maritime Container Terminals.”Honorable Mention: Song Gao, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Advisor: Moshe Ben-Akiva. Title: “Optimal Adaptive Routing and Traffic Assignment in Stochastic Time-Dependent Networks.”