Research Assistant / Doctoral Student (f/m/d) - developing innovative digital technologies to enable sustainable transportation

WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management is the leading private business school in Germany and is continuously ranked among the top business schools in Europe. On WHU’s two campuses in Vallendar (near Koblenz) and Düsseldorf, faculty, students, and staff enjoy working in a stimulating international environment. The organizational culture combines an entrepreneurial attitude and international orientation with a strong sense of community and diversity and a high commitment to excellence.

The Mercator Endowed Chair of Sustainable Urban Transport invites applications for the position of Research Assistant / Doctoral Student (f/m/d) located at WHU Campus Vallendar. The position is to be filled as soon as possible.
Academic EnvironmentWHU has more than 50 faculty members in the fields of management, finance and accounting, economics, entrepreneurship and innovation, marketing and sales, and supply chain management. Research at WHU aims to adhere to three principles: quality, internationality, and relevance to business practice.

The Mercator Chair is part of the Supply Chain Management Group and focusses on developing innovative digital technologies to enable sustainable transportation. One major theme in that context is the combination of demand management concepts (such as dynamic pricing or availability control of services) and classic transportation/logistics management (such as route optimisation) so as to increase sustainability.

Our focus is on mathematical approaches to this domain, encompassing planning and control problems in urban logistics, mobility as well as air traffic management. Typically, these applications involve customer choice modelling, optimal control, large-scale optimisation and optimal learning. We develop solutions in collaboration with companies or other stakeholders.

Potential topics of your Ph.D. project could be “Demand Management in the Circular Economy”, “Optimizing On-Demand Mobility Services”, or similar based on mutual agreement.
Job Description▪ The post is paid at 50 % full-time equivalent to enable you to complete your dissertation in 2 to 3 years.
▪ Your main task will be your Ph.D. projects in the domain of demand management and sustainable transportation, with strong links to industry practice.
▪ You will benefit from an existing network with well-known researchers at international top universities and practitioners, involving participation in ongoing collaborations.
▪ Your focus will be scholarly publications for highly ranked international refereed journals.
▪ You will to a very limited extent be engaged in teaching at the department, e. g., you may invigilate and mark exams or act as coreader on theses related to your research topics.
Job Qualifications▪ You should have an excellent Master degree in a quantitative subject such as business mathematics (Wirtschaftsmathematik), operations research, computer science, industrial engineering or similar. An excellent business degree with substantial quantitative content will also be considered.
▪ You have successfully completed your studies or will do so soon.
▪ You can work independently, enjoy working in teams and are goal oriented.
▪ You possess very good skills in English (writing and speaking).
▪ You ideally possess programming skills (e. g. in Python, R, Matlab) or at least the willingness to acquire them.

All members of the WHU community work together to continuously develop WHU as one of the leading business schools in Europe. Do you want to be a part of this vision? Come join our team!

Please send your application, including CV, transcripts, Bachelor and Master’s dissertations as well as the names of two academic referees, by email to:
WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management
Attn: Prof. Dr. Arne Strauss
Burgplatz 2, 56179 Vallendar, Germany
[Email Address Removed]
www.whu.edu