News > 2012 > Canadian Transportation Research Forum: Professor Julie Paquette honoured!

Canadian Transportation Research Forum: Professor Julie Paquette honoured!

January 9, 2012

The Canadian Transportation Research Forum (CTRF) has presented the 2010-2011 Jim Davey Award for the best doctoral paper by a student in Canada to Assistant Professor Julie Paquette (PhD 2010).

Professor Paquette (Logistics and Operations Management) received the $1,000 award for her article entitled “Mesure de la qualité de service et développement d’un outil d’aide à la décision multicritère en transport adapté : le cas de la ville de Longueuil.” The article summarizes her thesis, co-directed by Jean-François Cordeau, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Logistics and Transportation, and Gilbert Laporte, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Distribution Management.

Many cities offer adapted transportation services for their elderly or handicapped citizens, and managers of these services have historically been concerned with minimizing their operating costs. Recently, however, they are becoming more and more interested in improving the quality of their services. There are few tools available to help them do so. This study describes a tool for measuring service quality, which also serves as a multicriteria decision assistance tool for optimizing vehicle schedules and routes. The tool allows managers to better understand the trade-offs between costs and the measurable service quality criteria identified in the first part of the study.

During her studies at HEC Montréal, Julie Paquette won a number of prestigious awards, including the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Doctoral Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada ($35,000 per year for three years, from 2007 to 2009), the HEC Montréal scholarship for a successful thesis proposal ($5,000 in 2009) and the $20,000 doctoral scholarship from the Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture in 2007. 

 

The Canadian Transportation Research Forum

The CTRF brings together some 300 private- and public-sector professionals, consultants and academics in the transportation and distribution field. Every year, the Forum rewards the top research articles by undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students.