Biographical note

Jiuping Xu
Jiuping Xu holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Tsinghua University and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Sichuan University, where he became a professor in 1995. At present, he is the Dean of the Business School at Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, a Lifetime Academician of the International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences, President of the International Society for Management Science and Engineering Management and General Chair of the International Conference on Management Science and Engineering Management.

Virgílio António Cruz Machado
Full Professor of Industrial Engineering at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. He coordinates the Industrial Engineering PhD programme and post-graduation programmes in Project Management and Lean Management.

Benjamin Lev
Benjamin Lev holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Case Western Reserve University. At present, he is the head of the Decision Sciences Department, LeBow College of Business at Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of OMEGA - The International Journal of Management Science.

Stefan Nickel
Director at Karlsruhe Service Institute (KSRI), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Faculty of Economics; Chair in Discrete Optimization and Logistics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Faculty of Economics.