René de Koster recognised for 20 years full professorship
Professor de Koster was presented with a commemorative Jubileumboek (anniversary book) documenting achievements and celebrating this milestone during a segment of the event Logistica 2015 in Jaarsbeurs Utrecht, 10 November 2015. The book, Past and Future: Perspectives on Material Handling marks the occasion of René de Koster’s 20 years full professorship at RSM.
The book is particularly devoted to developments in material handling, a topic he has been teaching during these 20 years. Several authors take a retrospective look at the developments in the field of material handling both in practice and in research over the last twenty years, and make predictions for the future. The book focuses not only on technical developments in material handling, but also on insights obtained in the impact of behaviour and leadership on operational performance in combination with systems and procedures. Also included are some key representative papers used in courses on warehousing and material handling that highlight what we have learned and taught during this period.
Over a twenty-year span René has supervised 17 PhD candidates. In his own words, he said, “With several gifted PhD students we have been able to explore the control and design of automated guided vehicle systems, order picking methods, storage strategies, facility layouts, container terminal operations, and compact storage systems. New research areas such as sustainability in material handling and the human factor in material handling have emerged.”
At the commemoration event in Utrecht on Tuesday, a mini-seminar focused on Innovation, and opened with a presentation titled “How do you get from a problem situation to a practical solution.” RSM Professor Justin Jansen followed up with a talk titled, “How to create a real success from a successful idea.” René concluded with remarks on innovations in Material Handling over the 20 years. ERIM Scientific Director, Marno Verbeek then presented the book and emphasised, “In academia, we are continuously interested in valorisation; strengthening the intersection of research and practice. René has been active in bringing researchers, practitioners and suppliers together. Throughout his tenure, he has experienced great impact on the dialogue and activity of the industry as documented in the creation and realisation of the Material Handling Forum. Congratulations René for inspiring solid research, industry enhancements, and collaborations which address the current and grand challenges ahead.”
René (M.)B.M. de Koster is a professor of logistics and operations management in the Department of Technology and Operations Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM), and a Fellow of the Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) in the research programme Business Processes, Logistics and Information Systems (LIS).
After completing his PhD at Eindhoven University of Technology (1988) he worked as a consultant. He joined Erasmus University in 1995. Professor de Koster’s research interests are warehousing, material handling, container terminal operations, behavioural operations and sustainable logistics. He is the author and editor of eight books and over 130 papers published in books and academic journals. He is on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including Operations Research, Transportation Science (SI), and Journal of Operations Management. He is member of several international research advisory boards (ELA: European Logistics Association, BVL: Germany (www.bvl.de), AIRL: France, and university supervisory boards: University of Pisa and Aalto-Helsinki. He is chairman of Stichting Logistica, and founder of the Material Handling Forum (www.rsm.nl/mhf). He is involved in teaching at RSM at all levels: bachelor, master, post experience, and executive development. He is also guest lecturer at several universities in the Netherlands, Belgium, China, and South Africa.
Order the book
You can order the book free of charge by sending an e-mail to the MHF-secretariat.
