Frits Spieksma

Frits Spieksma is a Full Professor and Chair of Combinatorial Optimization in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). His work bridges theoretical combinatorial optimization with practical applications in logistics, healthcare, and sports scheduling.

Education:

• MSc in Econometrics, University of Groningen (1987)
• PhD in Operations Research, Maastricht University (1992)

Research Interests: Spieksma specializes in operations research, particularly combinatorial optimization. His research spans scheduling, routing, clustering, and interdisciplinary applications in economics, healthcare (e.g., liver allocation), and sports (e.g., tournament design). He emphasizes data-driven solutions to real-world logistics challenges.

Advising & Editorial Roles: He has supervised over 15 PhD students and served on editorial boards of Operations Research Letters, INFORMS Transactions on Education, and other journals. He founded the EURO Working Group OR in Sports and contributes to the MathSports International organizing committee.

Teams & Collaborations: Spieksma leads the Combinatorial Optimization group at TU/e, collaborating on healthcare logistics, sports scheduling, and algorithm design for dynamic graphs. His work integrates discrete mathematics, computer science, and management science.