Rene Sitters is associate professor at the department of Supply Chain Analytics at the Vrije Universiteit. One day per week he is researcher at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI). (My CWI page)
He obtained his PhD at Eindhoven University of Technology in 2004.
René Sitters’s current research focuses on combinatorial optimization, in particular the design and analysis of efficient algorithms for complex routing and scheduling problems. A central theme in his recent work is the development of approximation algorithms, methods that provide solutions that are provably close to optimal for problems that are too computationally difficult to solve exactly. These include classic and modern challenges such as variants of the travelling salesman problem, vehicle routing, and scheduling problems.
His latest publications show a strong emphasis on routing problems under realistic constraints, such as capacitated vehicle routing and convoy routing, where he develops new algorithmic techniques and improves performance guarantees. For example, recent work introduces more efficient approximation schemes for routing problems in geometric settings, representing progress toward long-standing open problems in the field. Other work studies how to design exact and approximation algorithms for routing in graphs with additional constraints, extending classical problems in new directions.
Across these topics, Sitters’s research combines deep theoretical analysis (complexity and approximability) with the goal of creating algorithms that are not only mathematically sound but also relevant for applications in logistics, transportation, and network design.
Rene Sitters teaches courses at bachelor’s and master’s level at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in Operations Research, Mathematics and Combinatorial Optimization.
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