We are proud to share the journey of one of our MEL alumni, Muchammad Arya Zamal, whose path from Rotterdam has taken him to a PhD defence, two international publications and a faculty position at one of Indonesia's most prestigious universities.
On 28 October 2025, our alumnus Muchammad Arya Zamal successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at TU Eindhoven. His dissertation spans three chapters, two of which have already been published in internationally recognised journals — Computers & Operations Research and Transportation Research Part B — a remarkable achievement that speaks to the quality and rigour of his research.
He has since returned to Indonesia and taken up a position as Assistant Professor at the Bandung Institute of Technology, one of the country's leading technical universities.
Reflecting on his time at MEL, he shared:
"What MEL gave me most was a solid grounding in the context of maritime logistics. The programme provided a thinking framework for understanding real-world problems across the whole sector, from port and shipping operations to law. That holistic view has been invaluable for research: before diving into the details, you first have to define the problem that actually matters to stakeholders, and MEL is where I learned to do exactly that."
We could not be more proud of how far he has come and are grateful that he continues to give back to the MEL community.
Congratulations — you have earned every bit of this.
