Combinatorial Optimization and Applications : A Tribute to Bernard Gendron

Combinatorial Optimization represents a major component of Operations Research, Mathematical Programming, and, in a broader sense, the development of digital intelligence (and society). It covers, in particular, such important areas as network design, location, routing, and scheduling, with major applications in transportation, logistics, health systems, production, communications, and energy.

Starting from the exceptional contribution Professor Bernard Gendron made to combinatorial optimization and its applications in multiple areas, the book presents a state-of-the-art view on the field through a combination of surveys, expository articles, and focused methodological and applied research. The authors hail from various Operations Research areas and institutions around the world. Having collaborated closely with Professor Gendron, they drew on his foundational work to showcase a variety of models and algorithms that draw a living picture of the multifaceted word of applied combinatorial optimization.

Teodor Gabriel Crainic is Professor of Operations Research, Transportation, and Logistics at the  School of Business Administration of the Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada). He is Adjunct Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research of the Université de Montréal and a long-time member of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT) . His main research interests are in network, integer, and combinatorial optimization, meta-heuristics, and parallel computing applied to the planning and management of complex systems, particularly in transportation and logistics.

Michel Gendreau is Professor of Operations Research at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Industrial Engineering of Polytechnique Montréal (Canada). He is also a long-time member of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT) . His main research area is the application of operations research to transportation and logistics systems planning and operation, energy production and storage, healthcare, and telecommunications. 

Antonio Frangioni is Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Pisa (Italy). His main research interests are analysis, implementation and testing of solution approaches for problems at the interface between continuous and combinatorial optimization, and their real-life application in several fields. He has co-ordinated several scientific and applied projects, among which serving as vice-chair of the COST Action TD1207.