Dinard van der Laan

Dinard van der Laan is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Operations Analytics within the School of Business and Economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He holds a PhD from Leiden University (2003). His research focuses on dynamic programming, Markov decision processes, optimization of queueing networks, and dynamic pricing, contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals through operations research applications.

Key research interests include decision rule engineering, stochastic optimization, and queueing network control. His work applies to resource allocation, server systems, and dynamic pricing strategies. Recent publications address parallel server assignment, call center control, and auction mechanisms.

Teaches courses including Operations Research and Thesis supervision. Engaged in academic activities such as peer reviewing for Operations Research, visiting research at the University of York (2016–2018), and presenting on sequential assignment algorithms at international conferences.