Pr. Michel Gendreau

Dr. Michel Gendreau is full Professor of Operations Research at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Industrial Engineering of École Polytechnique de Montréal (Canada), where he holds the NSERC/Hydro-Québec Chair on the Stochastic Optimization of Electricity Generation. Dr. Gendreau has published more than 350 papers on these topics in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He is also the co-editor of six books dealing with transportation planning and scheduling, as well as with metaheuristics. Dr. Gendreau was the Director of the Centre for Research on Transportation (formerly CRT and now CIRRELT) from 1999 to 2007. He completed his 6-year term as Editor in chief of Transportation Science at the end of 2014. In 2001, he received the Merit Award of the Canadian Operational Research Society in recognition of his contributions to the development of O.R. in Canada. He was elected Fellow of INFORMS in 2010. In 2015, Dr. Gendreau received the prestigious Robert Herman Lifetime Achievement Award of the Transportation Science & Logistics Society of INFORMS.

Pr. Vašek Chvátal

Dr. Vašek Chvátal was born in Prague and received his undergraduate degree in mathematics there. He left Czechoslovakia in August 1968, three days after its Soviet-led invasion. Having earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Waterloo in the fall of 1970, he taught mathematics, computer science, and operations research at McGill, Stanford, Université de Montréal, and Rutgers. From 2004 till his retirement in 2014, he held a Canada Research Chair, first in Combinatorial Optimization and then in Discrete Mathematics, at Concordia University in Montreal. His research agenda has ranged from graph theory and combinatorics to linear programming and cutting planes to analysis of algorithms to the traveling salesman problem. In 2015, he shared the John von Neumann Theory Prize 'for seminal and profound contributions to the theoretical foundations of optimization' with Jean Bernard Lasserre. His most recent book, "The Discrete Mathematical Charms of Paul Erdős", was published in August 2021 by Cambridge University Press.

Pr. Ángel Corberán

Dr. Ángel Corberán is Professor of Statistics and Operations Research at the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Valencia (Spain). He has published close to 100 papers in combinatorial optimization and is Coordinating Editor of Computational Optimization and Applications, and member of the Editorial Board of Computers & Operations Research, the EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics, and the EURO Journal on Computational Optimization. His research interests concern the study and solution of combinatorial optimization problems, mainly in the routing and location areas.

Pr. José María Sanchís Llopis

Dr. José María Sanchís Llopis is Full Professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics of Polytechnic University of Valencia. He has published over 60 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, essentially about Arc Routing Problems in Operations Research.

Dr. Nikolaj Van Omme

I hold an M.Sc. in pure mathematics, an M.Sc. in theoretical computer science and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics and industrial engineering. I've been solving complex industrial problems for more than 25 years while working with small, mid sized and big companies (Google, Juniper Networks). Recently, I cofounded Funartech, a young Montreal startup that specializes in providing creative solutions to industrial problems by combining machine learning and operations research (applied mathematics). This entrepreneurial adventure leads me to work on challenging problems such as climate change or a hybridization of machine learning and operations research that might lead to real intelligence. Occasionnaly, I'm a father, a husband, a dancer, an actor and a singer.

Dr. Dania El-Khechen

I hold a Ph.D. in Computer Science. My expertise is in Computational Geometry. I enjoy every bit of being an entrepreneur and helping create and launch Funartech. I'm passionate about the environment and committed to working on projects that have a positive environmental impact. My other passions include raising a child, literature, gardening and dancing.

Pr. Tamara Díaz Chang

I hold a M.Sc. in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education and I'm currently a Professor at the Institute of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and part of the team of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies on the Nervous System at Austral University in Chile. My work is focused on Mathematical Modeling in Neuroscience and the study of emerging experimental techniques and theoretical concepts that are at the vanguard of the application of Neuroscience to the study of human cognition. I'm also curious about the eventual relationships, similarities and differences that could be established between human learning processes and machine learning. The history and philosophy of Mathematics are some of my other interests.

Ali Rezagholizadeh

I obtained my master's degree in Information Technologies Engineering at ÉTS university. I've gained some knowledge in Machine Learning (ML) after taking Applied ML and Reinforcement Learning (RL) courses at McGill and applied an RL method in my heavy master's project built from scratch. My bachelor's degree was in Computer Science at the University of Tehran. I am curious about coding and (process/task) automation using AI. It is a pleasure to collaborate with Funartech as an AI Researcher, along with working on their AI platform as a developer. My extracurricular interests are cooking, playing volleyball and soccer, walking, and playing with children.

Eric O. Ansah

Eric O. Ansah is a Geometallurgist/Engineering geologist with specialisation in reactive transport in porous media and resources engineering, with applications in heap leaching of low-grade ores like porphyry copper-gold deposits. At the University of Melbourne, Eric O. Ansah is pursuing his PhD in Geoscience. At the University of Mines and Technology in Ghana and Kyushu and Hokkaido Universities in Japan, respectively, Eric previously received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Minerals and Earth Resources Engineering. In the past, Eric had a Geometallurgical job in a number of gold mines in Ghana. Eric also has Engineering sales experience from Toyota and Shell.

Issoufou Abdou Amadou

I have a Ph.D in applied mathematics (operational research), a licence es-sciences in Statistics and Probability. I'm also a mining engineer with practical experience in mining, maintenance methods and logistics (Areva and DTP Bouygues). My aim is to use applied mathematics to solve and optimize industrial problems. Funartech has given me the opportunity to put my goal into practice.

Mohsen Yahyaei

Tomáš Miškov