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Dorit S. Hochbaum is a distinguished professor in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) at UC Berkeley. Professor Hochbaum holds a Ph.D from the Wharton school of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests are in areas of discrete optimization, network flow techniques, data mining, image segmentation, supply chain management and efficient utilization of resources. Her work contributed to the analysis of heuristics and approximation algorithms in the worst case, and on average, to the complexity analysis of algorithms in general, and nonlinear optimization algorithms in particular. Her theoretical work focuses on particularly efficient techniques using network flow for data mining and image segmentation including parametric flow for the convex Markov Random Fields problem establishing it as polynomial; the PseudoFlow algorithm for the maximum flow problem and the parametric flow and cut algorithms. Her recent research is on problems relating to machine learning on recognizing bias in labeled data; reducing dependence in training data; using pairwise relationships to enhance clustering methods. Applications include improved yield prediction in semi-conductor manufacturing; devising balanced covariates for experimental design; the maximum diversity and dispersion problem and group rankings and aggregate decision problems.Professor Hochbaum is the author of over 190 papers that appeared in the Operations Research, Management Science and Theoretical Computer Science literature. She served as department editor for Management Science department of Optimization and Modeling, and on a number of editorial boardsProfessor Hochbaum was named in 2004 as honorary doctorate of Sciences of the University of Copenhagen, for her work on approximation algorithms. She was appointed the Pinhas Naor lecturer of the Technion for 2013, and a Research Excellence professor at the University of Vienna in 2007. She is the winner of the 2011 INFORMS Computing Society prize for her work on algorithms for image segmentation. Professor Hochbaum is a fellow of INFORMS and a fellow of SIAM (Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics). In 2024, she was awarded the Khachiyan Prize by the INFORMS Optimization Society, recognizing her for her extensive contributions to optimization, including her work on the design and analysis of algorithms and their applications across various domains.

Kenneth Sörensen obtained his PhD entitled "A framework for robust and flexible optimization using metaheuristics" from the University of Antwerp in 2003 and continued as a post-doctoral researcher at the UAntwerp. From 2006 to 2009, he worked as a postdoc researcher of the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO) at the Faculty of Engineering of the KULeuven. In 2009, Kenneth Sörensen was appointed as a Research Professor of the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Antwerp, a position he holds to date.Within this Faculty, he founded the ANT/OR research group, which focuses on applications of operations research and currently consists of three professors and about ten PhD students. Under his supervision, over twenty PhD's were obtained. Kenneth Sörensen has published a large number of articles in international refereed journals and has presented his work at numerous scientific conferences. He is considered one of the world’s leading experts in the field of metaheuristics. Hismain research interest lies in the application of advanced (metaheuristic) optimization methods and in the development and study of optimization methods. Kenneth Sörensen is the founder and current coordinator of EU/ME – the EURO working group on metaheuristics, the largest online platform for researchers in metaheuristics worldwide.

Yoshiko Wakabayashi is a retired professor at Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brazil. She holds a degree in Mathematics Education and a master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from USP, as well as a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Augsburg. Her research interests include combinatorial optimization, graph theory, algorithms, packing problems, and polyhedral combinatorics. She has published more than 50 papers in journals such as Mathematical Programming, Theoretical Computer Science, Journal of Combinatorial Theory: Series B, Discrete Mathematics, SIAM Journal on Computing, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Computers & Operations Research, and Discrete Applied Mathematics. Yoshiko supervised 16 doctoral and 20 master’s students, as well as 7 postdocs. In 2010, she was named a commander of the National Order of Scientific Merit. She was later elected to the Academy of Sciences of the State of São Paulo in 2012 and to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 2019. In 2020, she was awarded the prize for scientific merit by the Brazilian Computer Society.

Erling D. Andersen is co-founder and CEO of the Danish company MOSEK ApS which is the vendor of the Mosek optimization software package. In 1993 Erling received a PhD in Economics from Odense University (Denmark). The main research interests of Erling are computational linear and convex optimization. In particular, he has focused on conic optimization and is one of the leading developers of software for that class of optimization problems. Erling has co-authored several articles published in major optimization journals such as Mathematical Programming, Informs Journal on Computing, and SIAM Journal on Optimization. Since 2024, Erling has been an honorary member of the Danish OR society.

Louis-Martin Rousseau is a Full Professor in the Department of Mathematical and Industrial Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, where he has been a faculty member since 2003. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Healthcare Analytics and Logistics, and is known for his applied research at the intersection of operations research, artificial intelligence, and healthcare systems. His early work focused on logistics and workforce scheduling, both in industrial and healthcare settings. Over the years, his research has evolved toward developing decision-support tools with real-world impact, particularly in the planning and optimization of health services. Outside academia, Louis-Martin has co-founded and advised several mission-driven organizations, including Gray Oncology Solutions, IVADO Labs, Kaster, and PemPem. He serves on multiple boards and is an active member of Anges Québec and Creative-Destructive Labs, where he supports science-based ventures focused on societal impact.

Laureano Escudero received his PhD Degree in Economic Sciences from Universidad Comercial de Deusto, Bilbao, Spain, 1974, and a degree in Computer Sciences from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain, 1972. ORCID: 0000-0002-1196-7124. He has taught Mathematical Statistics and Decision Theory at the Computer Science School, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 1974-1977, and Mathematical Optimization at the Mathematical Sciences School, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1992-2000. He has been full professor of Operations Research at the Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche (Alicante, Spain), 2000-2007 and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), Móstoles (Madrid), Spain, 2007-2013. Currently, he is a Research Fellow ad honorem on Statistics & Operations Research and a retired Full Professor in URJC. He has been a Scholar Visitor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Pittsburgh (PA, USA), 2014, and at Northeastern University (NEU), Shenyang (China), 2018. He has worked at IBM Research, Scientific and Development Centers in Madrid (Spain), Palo Alto (California), Sindelfingen (Germany) and T.J. Watson Research Center (Yorktown Heights, NY), 1972-1991. He has work in the IBERDROLA group (one of the biggest electric power generation and distribution company in Europe), 1994-99. In 1987 he was appointed member of the New York Academy of Sciences. In the period 2003-4 he was the President of EURO (Association of European Operational Research Societies). He is the author of 5 books and a co-author of another one. He has published over 160 peer- reviewed scientific papers in leading journals. In 1986 he has been awarded the "Cruz al Mérito Aeronáutico con Distintivo Blanco, Primera Clase" by the Spanish Ministry of Defense for his work on Mathematical Optimization for the Spanish MoD. He is a holder of a 2020 medal by the Spanish SEIO and a 2024 medal by ALIO (Asociación Iberoamricanana de Investigación-Operativa). In 2024, SEIO jointly with Fundación BBVA awarded a prize to the "mejor contribución metodológica en el campo de la Investigación-Operativa" to the European Journal of Operational Research EJOR 2023 paper "On solving large-scale multistage stochastic optimization problems with a new specialized interior-point approach", jointly co-authored with J. Castro and J.F. Monge.

Héctor Cancela holds a PhD. degree in Computer Science from the University of Rennes 1, INRIA Rennes, France (1996), and a Computer Systems Engineer degree from the Universidad de la República, Uruguay (1990). He is a Full Professor at the Computing Institute at the Engineering School of the Universidad de la República (Uruguay), which he lead in two periods: 2006-2010 and 2017-2023. He was Dean of the Engineering School of the Universidad de la República (2010-2015). He is a Researcher at the National Program for the Development of Basic Sciences (PEDECIBA), Uruguay. His research interests are centered in network models and stochastic models, applied jointly with optimization methods for solving problems in different areas (reliability, communications, transport, production, biological applications, agricultural applications, etc). He has published more than 100 full papers in international journals, indexed conference proceedings and book chapters. He has supervised more than 20 Ph.D. and M.Sc. thesis. He has been General Chair and Program Chair of several international events, and a member of the Program Committee of more than 50 international conferences. He participated in the development of accreditation standards for MERCOSUR engineering programs. He was member of the task force which prepared the ACM/IEEE Computing Curricula 2020 report (ACM/IEEE CC 2020). He is associate editor of the journals International Transactions in Operations Research (ITOR), RAIRO Operations Research (RAIRO-OR), Mathematical Methods of Operations Research (MMOR), Computational and Applied Mathematics (COAM), and member of the editorial board of the journals Pesquisa Operacional (Brazil) and Ingenieria de Sistemas (Chile). Between 2010 and 2019 he was editor-in-chief of CLEIej, the electronic journal of the CLEI association. He is an IEEE Senior Member, also a member of ACM. He is a former President of CLEI (Centro Latinoamericano de Estudios en Informática – 2016-2020), and a former president of ALIO (Asociación Latino Ibero Americana de Investigación Operativa – 2006-2010. He is currently president of IFORS (International Federation of Operational Research Societies, 2025-2027).

Bissan Ghaddar is the John M. Thompson Chair in Engineering Leadership and Innovation and an Associate Professor of Management Science and Sustainability at the Ivey Business School working on problems at the intersection of machine learning and non-linear optimization. She is also affiliated with university of Waterloo and DTU. Bissan holds a PhD in Management Science from the University of Waterloo. Before joining academia, she worked on energy, water, and transportation network optimization at IBM Research and on inventory management problems at the Centre for Operational Research and Analysis, Department of National Defence Canada. Her work has been published in prestigious journals such as Mathematical Programming, INFORMS Journal on Computing, SIAM Journal on Optimization, among others. Her research has been supported by national and international grants including NSERC, OCE, Cisco, H2020, and Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship. She serves as the Research Lead at the Ivey Energy Policy and Management Centre and is a fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, engaged in the research cluster on AI, Global Governance, and International Public Policy. She is the Associate Editor for the EURO Journal on Computational Optimization. She was recently awarded the best survey paper award at the EURO conference in Copenhagen and the Distinguished International Associate by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Dominique de Werra is an emeritus professor of Operations Research at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) in Switzerland. His research fields include Combinatorial Optimization, Graph Theory, Scheduling and Timetabling. After spending a few years as an assistant professor in Management Sciences at the University of Waterloo (Canada) he joined the Math Department of EPFL. He conducted a collection of Operational Research projects (applied as well as theoretical) with a number of industrial partners. He is an associate editor of Discrete Applied Mathematics, Discrete Mathematics, Annals of Operations Research and a member of a dozen of editorial boards of international journals. From 1990 to 2000 Dominique de Werra was the Vice-President of EPFL; he was in charge of the international relations and represented his institution in many academy networks in Europe (like the CLUSTER network of excellence which he chaired). He was also in charge of all education programs of EPFL. He was President of IFORS (the International Federation of Operational Research Societies) from 2010 to 2012. In 1987-1988 he was President of EURO, the European Association of Operational Research Societies. In 1985–1986 he was President of ASRO, the Swiss Operations Research Society. In 1995 he was the laureate of the EURO Gold Medal. He has obtained Honorary Degrees from the University of Paris, the Technical University of Poznan (Poland) and the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). In 2012 he was awarded the EURO Distinguished Service Medal. He published over 200 papers in international scientific journals. He also wrote and edited several books. He was member of many committees in various countries of Europe and America (evaluation of institutions, accreditation, strategic orientation, etc.).

Harilaos N. Psaraftis is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Technology, Management and Economics at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). His areas of interest are maritime logistics, intermodal logistics, port logistics, and green logistics. He has a PhD from MIT, where he was a faculty member from 1979 to 1989, receiving tenure in 1985. He was a Professor at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) from 1989 to 2013 and at DTU from 2013 to 2023. He also served as CEO of the port of Piraeus from 1996 to 2002. He has published extensively and has received several academic and industry awards. His latest book is entitled “Sustainable Shipping: A Cross-Disciplinary View”, Springer (2019).