Kerem Akartunali is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Management Science at Strathclyde Business School, where he joined as John Anderson Research Lecturer (JARL) in Optimization in 2010, and also a Visiting Professor at Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science (ICMC-USP) of University of São Paulo.  After completing his Ph.D. in 2007 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a specialization in optimization, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne in collaboration with Constraint Technologies International, an Australian software company, on airline planning and scheduling problems.  Kerem’s research expertise lies primarily in integer programming and its applications, in particular in lot-sizing/production planning, transportation scheduling/planning, radiation treatment planning optimization, nurse rostering and network optimization.

Kerem's research has been funded by various bodies/organizations including Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Scottish Funding Council (SFC), Capita and US Air Force Office of Scientific Research.  He has been an active member of INFORMS and Mathematical Optimization Society since 2003. He was the elected chair of the OR Group of Scotland (the regional branch of OR Society) betwen 2012-2016, and he is currently a member of the OR Society Research Panel, and EURO Working Group in Lotsizing Board.  Kerem regularly reviews articles for many prestigious journals such as European Journal of Operational Research, IIE Transactions, INFORMS Journal on Computing, Naval Research Logistics and Operations Research.

Kerem has worked with many organizations, including First Milk, NHS, Scottish Power, Scottish Southern Energy and Technip, in a variety of projects ranging from short-term consultancy/knowledge exchange to long-term research partnerships.

In his spare time, Kerem likes to play ultimate frisbee and go hiking.

You can also visit his personal website or check his Google Scholar profile.

My broad research area is operations research, with a focus in integer and combinatorial optimization, and their applications in practice. Since my PhD thesis, I have been working on production planning and lot-sizing problems, as well as a number of integer optimization applications, in particular large-scale transportation problems (such as airline scheduling and vessel crew scheduling), and health applications (such as radiation treatment planning).

I have been extensively involved with teaching activities in various levels from undergraduate to Masters since I was a PhD student.  I was exposed to course development as early as the last year of my PhD studies, and I have received extensive teaching training during my PhD studies as well as during my employments.  I have used my research in a number of teaching activities, and have employed a range of state-of-the-art technologies (such as access grid and virtual workspace) in various courses.

I like to teach classes in the broad area of operational research/management science, in particular in optimization techniques and software, OR modelling and applying these theories to real world problems.

My expertise spans the following areas and applications:

• Operational Research,
• Mathematical Optimization,
• Integer and Combinatorial Optimization,
• Production Planning,
• Transportation and Logistics Planning/Scheduling,
• Radiation Treatment Planning Optimization,
• Offshore Windfarm Installation Logistics
• Social Networks