Baris Burnak, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist with the Network Team at Amazon. He works on optimizing the topology of one of the largest supply chain networks in the U.S. Dr. Burnak received his Ph.D. from the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Bogazici University, Turkey. Before his career as an operations researcher, he practiced chemical engineering at Phillips 66, where he improved efficiency of midstream and downstream oil and gas operations with his expertise in modeling and optimization. He has co-authored 15 peer reviewed journal articles and six conference proceedings in the field of process systems engineering.
Nikolaos A. Diangelakis, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Crete. He holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. from Imperial College London. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the National Technical University of Athens. His research interests are on the area of optimal receding horizon strategies, non-linear, data-based and robust optimization. More specifically, his research focuses on the development of control and scheduling policies of chemical and energy processes while simultaneously optimizing their design. He is the co-author of 21 peer reviewed articles, 16 conference papers, three book chapters, and two books.
Efstratios N. Pistikopoulos, Ph.D., is the Director of the Texas A&M Energy Institute and holds the Dow Chemical Chair Professorship in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He holds a Ph.D. degree from Carnegie Mellon University and was previously a professor of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. A pioneer of multi-parametric optimization and explicit model predictive control, he has authored or co-authored over 600 major research publications in the areas of modelling, control and optimization of process, energy and systems engineering applications, 17 books, and four patents. He is a Member of the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science, and Technology and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK.