Jo van Nunen receives Faculty Award from ZRL

Zurich, Switzerland, Rotterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2007—Jo van Nunen, professor of Logistics and Information Systems and chairman of the research department Decision and Information Sciences at RSM Erasmus University receives a Faculty Award from the IBM (NYSE: IBM) Zurich Research Laboratory. The award honors his outstanding work in the field of Services Sciences in integrated supply chain management.

According to Charles Vincent, IBM Travel & Transport, who will hand over the award, “traditionally, Supply Chain Management (SCM) is focused on products, but in our joint vision products in combination with services will be the main contributor of revenues and profits of leading companies. This leads to supply chains with an extreme need for flexibility. The research of Jo van Nunen is an excellent example of innovative knowledge development. This is the kind of research we want to stimulate.”

“The research challenge to develop demand driven innovative service concepts for combinations of products and services is very big”, says Van Nunen. “This award is the proof of the relevance of our scientific research for the corporate world, and I thank IBM for this recognition. It certainly is the merit for our entire department as well. The research field still needs to crystallize out; we have yet to carry out a lot of interesting research. We hope to continue to do that in cooperation with IBM.”

In a joint research program, RSM Erasmus University and IBM Research - Zurich will focus on mathematical modeling, revenue management, on-line optimization and business economics to create demand driven service networks. Harold Tiemessen, a computer scientist of the Business Optimization group at the Zurich Research Lab has been appointed to work on this joint project for the coming three years. The Faculty Award will be used as well to support this research.

Faculty Awards in a range of research fields and topics are granted by IBM annually worldwide within the IBM University Relations program. IBM aims to stimulate the flow of scientific knowledge to society.

About RSM Erasmus University

RSM Erasmus University is an internationally top-ranked business school renowned for its ground-breaking research in sustainable business practice and for the development of leaders in global business. Offering an array of bachelor, master, doctoral, MBA and executive education programs, RSM is consistently ranked amongst the top 10 business schools in Europe.

About IBM Research - Zurich

IBM Research - Zurich (ZRL) is the European branch of IBM Research. This worldwide network of some 3500 employees in eight laboratories around the globe is the largest industrial IT-research organization in the world. ZRL's spectrum of research activities ranges from basic science and fundamental research in physics and mathematics, to the development of computer systems and software, to the design of novel business models and services.