On the 24th of November the Award Ceremony for the 3^rd MEL PhD Competition was held at Erasmus University Rotterdam. The MEL PhD Competition organized by MEL and Palgrave Macmillan aims at promoting research excellence in the field of Maritime Economics and Logistics, and, in its 3^rd Edition invited submissions from PhD researchers who defended their thesis between 2005 and 2008.

 

The 14 submissions received were evaluated by a Jury of 16 international academics and the five contenders that received the highest scores were invited on the day of the award to present their research to an audience of academics, business guests and students at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

 

The first prize, awarded by Palgrave Macmillan, went to Dr. Andrew GRAINGER, for the thesis "Trade Facilitation and Supply Chain Management: A Case Study at the Interface between Business and Government";

 

The second prize, offered by APM Terminals and awarded directly by Mr. John Verschelden, Managing Director APM Terminals, went to Dr. Daniel OLIVIER, for the thesis "The Globalisation of Port Business: an Asian Perspective";

 

The third prize, sponsored by the Center for Maritime Economics and Logistics (MEL) of Erasmus University, went to Dr. Gi-Tae YEO, for the thesis "Port Competitiveness in North East Asia: and Integrated Fuzzy Approach to Expert Evaluations".

 

During the day also Dr. Massimo DI FRANCESCO, and Dr. Zaili YANG presented their Research. The four Jury members present (Professor Nikitakos form the University of the Aegean, Professor Dekker and Professor Haralambides, from Erasmus University and Dr. Parola from University of Naples) and Mr. Verschelden congratulated the winners for the excellent results obtained in the competition.

 

In 2008 Maritime Economics & Logistics celebrates the publication of its 10^th Volume. To mark the occasion the Editor has selected some of the most significant papers that the journal has published and we are making them available to access for free. Please visit this link. <http://www.palgrave-journals.com/mel/08feature/index.html>

 

(Under the Picture)
The 3rd MEL PhD Competition Award Ceremony; from left to right, Mr. Michele Acciaro (competition coordinator); Dr. Massimo Di Francesco (finalist); Dr. Francesco Parola (Jury); Professor Nikitas Nikitakos (Jury); Dr. Daniel Olivier (2nd prize winner); Dr. Andrew Grainger (1st prize winner); Dr. Gi-Tae Yeo (3rd Prize winner); Professor Rommert Dekker (Jury); Mr. John Verschelden; Professor Hercules Haralambides (Jury); Dr. Zaili Yang (finalist).