Prof. Dr. Alf Kimms | Logistics and Operations Research
Personal Details
Professor Kimms studied Computer Science and Business Administration at the University of Kiel. He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Kiel in 1996 with a thesis on multi-level lot sizing and scheduling under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Andreas Drexl, and he earned his postdoctoral lecturer qualification from the same university in 2001 with a thesis on financial objectives for managing projects. In 2001 he became full professor at the Technical University of Freiberg and held the chair of Production and Logistics. In 2006 he was appointed as a full professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen to hold the chair of Logistics and Traffic Management. Professor Kimms has received several best paper awards and based on publications in high-quality international journals he was ranked among the top ten business administration professors in Germany by the Handelsblatt in 2005.
Teaching
Profound decision making in the area of logistics and traffic management requires analytical skills to be able to solve complex problems in an adequate way. Therefore, students learn how to attack thorny problems in a systematic manner by means of specific mathematical tools, so-called management science techniques. This way of thinking prepares the student to address new and non-trivial problems throughout the many years after university. Courses on cargo logistics, passenger logistics, supply chain management, and revenue management among others provide a broad insight into many different real-life decision problems. These courses demonstrate how advanced scientific state-of-the-art methods can successfully be applied.
Research
The research focus of Professor Kimms is on the application of so-called operations research methods. An emphasis is on problems from the following fields:
Selected recent research projects:
- Revenue Management with Flexible Products – Models and Methods for the Broadcasting Industry
- Revenue Management for Strategic Alliances
- Lot Sizing and Scheduling in the Bottling Industry
- Evacuation of Urban Regions
- Cooperative Game Theory in Supply Chain Management
Professor Kimms repeatedly reviews on behalf of the German Research Foundation(DFG) and has authored numerous scientific publications which appeared in refereed journals like Annals of Operations Research, at – Automatisierungstechnik, Betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung und Praxis, Central European Journal of Operations Research, Computers & Operations Research, European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Revenue Management, IIE Transactions, Journal of Logic and Algebraic Programming, Journal of Scheduling, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Management Science, Naval Research Logistics, Networks, Omega – The International Journal of Management Science, OR Spectrum, Pesquisa Operacional, Wirtschaftsinformatik, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Studium, Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft, Zeitschrift für betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung, Zeitschrift für Planung, Zeitschrift für wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb and others. His research is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG). He is a board member of the German national OR society (GOR), he is the founding president of the working group “Revenue Management and Dynamic Pricing” of the German national OR society, he was president of the working group “Operations Research” of the German association of business administration university professors, and he frequently is a member in program committees of international conferences (informs, EURO, GOR and others). Professor Kimms cooperated with companies like Bayer, Henkel, Lufthansa, DaimlerChrysler, German Centre for Aviation and Astronautics and others.