Özyeğin University Faculty Member Prof. Burcu Balçık Attends the SEIO-Fundación BBVA 2023 Awards Ceremony for the “Best Applied Paper Award”

Professor Burcu Balçık from the Department of Industrial Engineering, who is also the Academic Director of the Sustainability Platform at Özyeğin University, was honored with the Best Applied Paper Award in Operations Research at the SEIO-Fundación BBVA 2023 Awards for her paper titled “A Cost-Sharing Mechanism for Multi-Country Partnerships in Disaster Preparedness,” co-authored with Jessica Rodríguez-Pereira from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, and Marie-Ève Rancourt and Gilbert Laporte from HEC Montréal. The award ceremony took place on February 1, 2024, in Madrid, Spain, where Prof. Balçık received her award from Prof. Begoña Vitoriano, President of SEIO.

The SEIO-Fundación BBVA Awards are presented annually in cooperation with the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research (SEIO) and the BBVA Foundation (Fundación BBVA) to recognize originality, innovation, and contributions in the field of statistics and operations research. Described by the evaluation jury as an “interesting application of operations research in humanitarian aid partnerships,” the award-winning paper focuses on the importance of multinational collaborations and emergency assistance in disaster preparedness, particularly in the Caribbean region, which is frequently affected by devastating hurricanes.

The project funded under TÜBİTAK’s 2219 program and later culminated into the award- winning paper started during Prof. Balçık’s sabbatical in Canada in 2018. The project aimed to develop models and algorithms to support disaster preparedness by fostering collaboration among hurricane-prone Caribbean countries. Prof. Balçık highlighted the significance of multinational cooperation among countries with similar disaster risks, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and fires, at a time when the demand for humanitarian aid surpasses available resources. Prof. Balçık also emphasized that this study could serve as a roadmap for many regions worldwide.

The full citation of the paper is the following:
Rodríguez-Pereira, J., Balcik, B., Rancourt, M.-È., Laporte, G., “A Cost-Sharing Mechanism for Multi-Country Partnerships in Disaster Preparedness”, Production and Operations Management, 30, 4541-4565, 2021.