Gilbert Laporte, Eminent Transportation Researcher, Wins the 2009 Gérard-Parizeau Award

April 16, 2009

This year, the Gérard-Parizeau Award went to Professor Gilbert Laporte, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Distribution Management at HEC Montréal. The $30,000 award pays a tribute to a prominent person in the fields of history, economics or management.

Gilbert Laporte is a highly reputed researcher in the field of transportation. He has made a very significant contribution to operational research in this area, thanks to the originality, quality, relevance and scope of his work. A widely acknowledged expert in distribution management, and especially in optimizing vehicle routes, particularly for snow removal, garbage collection and mail pick-up and delivery, Professor Laporte is also interested in many other aspects of transportation. His work focuses on the management of ports and containers, shipping, satellite management, the deployment of ambulance fleets and path planning for self-guided vehicles.

“This award is a much-appreciated recognition of my contribution to transportation research and tangible evidence of the value placed by the Gérard-Parizeau Fund on university research,” he noted. “Montreal is a world leader in operational research and in transportation and has the largest number of university researchers anywhere in this field. The Gérard-Parizeau Fund generously provides concrete support for the efforts of these many researchers.”

Gilbert Laporte earned a PhD in operational research from the London School of Economics in 1975. After completing his studies, he joined the Computer Science Department at the Université de Montréal as a research attaché. In 1976, he was appointed Assistant Professor at HEC Montréal, where he held a variety of administrative positions, including Director of Research, Director of the joint PhD program in Administration, and Director of the Department of Management Sciences. Promoted to Associate Professor in 1980 and Full Professor in 1986, he served as Director of the Centre for Research on Transportation from 1987 to 1991. In 2001, he was named to the Canada Research Chair in Distribution Management, a position that has just been renewed until 2015.

Other HEC Montréal faculty members who have won the Gérard-Parizeau Award include Suzanne Rivard, holder of the Chair in Strategic Management of Information Technology, in 2007, and Georges Dionne, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Risk Management, in 2002.