Dutch Network on the Mathematics of Operations Research

LNMB, which stands for the Dutch Network on the Mathematics of Operations Research (Landelijk Netwerk Mathematische Besliskunde), is a collaborative initiative among Dutch universities and the Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) in Amsterdam. Established in 1987, this interuniversity cooperation brings together researchersin the field of operations research.

LNMB has dual responsibilities. Firstly, the network provides courses for PhD and Master students. The PhD programme, comprising 18 courses taught in a two-year cycle, aims at broadening and deepening the knowledge of PhD students in the mathematics of Operations Research. Secondly, LNMB serves as an organisation for mathematical researchers specialising in Operations Research. The General Board, representing all universities and CWI, selects an Executive Board to oversee the network's activities. Currently, Prof.dr. G. Schäfer (CWI) is the chairman of the network and Prof.dr. Maria Vlasiou (UT) is its director.

Over the years, the administration of LNMB has transitioned between various universities. Initially administered by the University of Groningen from 1987 to 2001, it was then managed by the University of Maastricht from 2002 to 2006. Subsequently, the University of Twente took over administrative responsibilities from January 2007 until January 2020, followed by the University of Amsterdam from 2020 to 2023. As of 2024, the University of Twente has once again assumed the role of LNMB's administrator.

LNMB has around 150 active members and about 200 PhD students. The LNMB courses are also accessible, on payment, to other interested people. An independent judgment by NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) has proven that the LNMB graduate education programme is of a high international standard.

LNMB also strives for contacts with the business community. PhD graduates in Operations Research often accept jobs in business. New scientific developments can be transmitted in the LNMB courses to employees of companies who are interested in quantitative decision methods. LNMB is, in co-operation with the NGB (Dutch OR Society), investigating in what way they can play a meaningful role in this sense.

Operations Research (shortly OR) is a term for a field of science, in which a variety of (mostly decision) problems with limited resources are being analysed using mathematical models. Although particular models and techniques of OR have earlier origins, it is generally agreed that the discipline began during World War II. Many operations associated with the British and American Armed Forces were simply too complicated to expect adequate solutions without a scientific research. Hence, the name Operations Research. Inspired by this success, after the war many of the techniques developed were adopted to analyse complex planning problems in industrial, agricultural and public organizations with mathematical models, and sometimes the field is called Management Science.

Various methods and models in topics like project planning, production planning and scheduling, maintenance, replacement, allocation, routing and transport, distribution, inventory, investments, telecommunication and congestion are a result of this. In the sixties the universities instituted the discipline, at first in England and in the USA, later as well in almost all developed countries. Every Dutch university, including the Universities of Technology and the Agriculture University, teaches Operations Research mostly at the faculties of Mathematics and Economics. Besides, one can find Operations Researchers working for large business companies and (government) institutions, in profit as well as in non-profit organizations.

Partly due to early exploitation of the possibilities that computers offer, the discipline went through a stormy development. This is evident from the origination of large organizations of scientists and from the abundant interest for conferences in the field, by fundamental researchers as well as by people applying the methods. Besides that, one can consider the existence of many international OR journals of high standard.

Operations Research is a typical interdisciplinary topic. Not only the field of applied mathematics (including statistics and applied probability theory) and computer science discovered the discipline as a fruitful source of inspiration of relevant problems, also in the technical, economical, econometrical and management science educations the OR models and methods have become indispensable, of course in each discipline in combination with their own mathematical abstraction and practical aspects.

Operations Research includes the study of fundamental properties of mathematical models for decision problems as well as the design and analysis of algorithms for these models. Mostly, but not always, these models are abstractions of management problems from large business organizations. Nowadays, various models and techniques are fairly standard and they prove to have a great supporting value when making decisions in a complex environment.

In The Netherlands, Operations Researchers are organized in the Dutch Community for Operations Research which is, with 500 members, the largest section of the VVS (Society for Statistics). Since 1976 a yearly "International Conference on the Mathematics of Operations Research" is being held. Until 2000, this conference was organized by CWI in co-operation with LNMB. From 2001, the conference is fully under the responsibility of LNMB. This conference functions as a platform where OR-scientists in the Netherlands meet and where international specialists present lectures and discuss promising research areas.

Who can participate

Credit points

In addition to the courses, the PhD programme includes the annual LNMB Conference on the Mathematics of Operations Research. During this conference prominent - usually foreign - researchers lecture on special topics or on recent research. PhD students can give a PhD presentation presenting their own research results. Attendance at the LNMB Conference is credited by 1 EC.

Certificates

Course fees

Registering for a course

LNMB diploma

PhD students who have sufficiently participated in the LNMB PhD programme may apply for the LNMB Diploma by emailing the secretariat with information that they have fulfilled all requirements and attaching their obtained certificates.

Here, "sufficiently" means that they have successfully completed at least 6 LNMB PhD courses, whereby one of the courses may be replaced by a course of the graduate program GP-OML and whereby in consultation with the supervisor one course may be replaced by a Master course from a Dutch institute or Mastermath. If PhD courses were already taken during a student's Master programme, these courses may also be taken into consideration for the LNMB diploma, with the note on the diploma that specific courses were part of a Master programme. In addition, PhD students must have given a PhD presentation at the annual LNMB Conference on the Mathematics of Operations Research. Under certain circumstances, the supervisor of a PhDd student may submit a motivated request to award the LNMB diploma to a PhD student who did not meet the requirement of the PhD presentation, provided that it can be shown that the student has given ample presentations at other international events and that attendance of any LNMB conference during the duration of their studies was impossible.

Master courses (general information)

LNMB provides also Master courses in Operations Research. These courses are intended for Master students in Mathematics or Econometrics who want to take one or more courses in Operations Research. Usually, the Master thesis adviser will propose or decide that a student will participate in LNMB Master courses.

Due to the small number of Master students in Operations Research at each individual university, a national collaboration is efficient and can help guarantee a qualitatively high level of education. This is the main purpose of the LNMB Master courses. An additional advantage for the students is the contact with professors and students from other universities. The LNMB Master courses are part of the Dutch Master Programme in Mathematics, Mastermath, which is a coordinated programme of the Departments of Mathematics of the Dutch universities.

In any semester (Fall or Spring), three LNMB Master courses are given. The subjects of the courses are taken from the following areas: Mathematical Programming, Combinatorial Optimization and Stochastic Operations Research. The programme is flexible in the sense that new Master students can start with their programme at the beginning of any semester. Furthermore, the individual programmes can vary; each student can choose his of her own courses. The courses take place on Monday in Utrecht.

Who can participate

Credit points

Registering for a course