2012 Conference on Health and Humanitarian Logistics, Hamburg

Pam and Burcu 

I have just returned from Germany and the Hamburg conference on Health and Humanitarian Logistics. The conference brought together stakeholders from practice, academia and the private sector as well as students. I was delighted to meet many familiar faces along with others I was meeting for the first time. I was most delighted to meet academics whose journal articles have informed my research studies in humanitarian and public health supply chain and who generously offered me advice to help shape my thinking as a researcher. I was fortunate to put names to faces and meet Professor Prashant Yadav and Assistant Professor Burcu Balcik.

Prof Prashant Yadav

Prashant Yadav is a Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Healthcare Research at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan. Yadav is a leading expert on pharmaceutical and healthcare supply chains in developing countries so I was excited to meet him. His research explores the functioning of healthcare supply chains in developing countries using a combination of empirical, analytical and qualitative approaches.

 Burcu Balcik is currently an Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering at Ozyegin University (Istanbul, Turkey). Her research focuses on developing mathematical models and analytical tools to improve the design and management of humanitarian relief systems. Her work addresses various topics including strategic network design, last mile distribution, performance measurement, and coordination. I encourage practitioners to read her work to inform practice, particularly her work with Beamon on performance measurement in humanitarian supply chains published on International journal of Public Sector Management, Vol 21, No 1, and measuring supply chain performance published on International journal of Operations and Production Management, Vol 19, No 3.

 I'm looking forward to more engaging discussions in 2012.