Professor Piet Rietveld Award

This dissertation award recognizes the best doctoral dissertation in the area of transport research (broadly defined) that was publicly defended and accepted for eligibility for a Ph.D. degree at a Benelux institution. An international jury evaluates all dissertations submitted after the publication of a call. Important criteria are: level of innovation and analysis, scope, scientific attitude, and presentation. The Award entails a certificate, a three-year membership of BIVEC-GIBET, and 2500 EUR. Before 2015 this reward was known as the BIVEC-GIBET PhD Transport Award.

Call for submissions 2023

Dissertations that treat a topic in transportation research and have been publicly defended between July 1, 2020, and December 31, 2022, and accepted for eligibility for a Ph.D. degree at a Benelux institution can be submitted for the 2023 edition of the prize.

To be eligible: a pdf file of the PhD accompanied with a maximum 5-page summary of the PhD research, and a brief CV of the applicant need to be emailed to mario.cools@uliege.be and Veronique.VanAcker@liser.lu before January 31, 2023.

The jury will be chaired by professor Erik Verhoef, VU Amsterdam. Announcement of the winner and presentation of the award will take place at the next BIVEC-GIBET Transport Research Days.

Laureates

2021

Eligibility:
PhD theses publicly defended between July 1, 2017, and June 30, 2020

Jury composition:
Prof. dr. Eric Cornelis (University of Namur)
Prof. dr. Sabine Limbourg (University of Liège)
Prof. dr. Veronique Van Acker (Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research)
Prof. dr. Erik Verhoef (VU Amsterdam, Chair)
Prof. dr. Frank Witlox (Ghent University)

Winners:
Sofie Burggraeve for her dissertation "Passenger robust timetables for dense railway networks", defended at KU Leuven (Promotor: Prof. dr. ir. Pieter Vansteenwegen)
&
Ismaïl Saadi for his dissertation "An agent-based framework for modeling travel behavior under disrupted networks", defended at University of Liège (Promotor: Prof. dr. Mario Cools)

2019

Eligibility:
PhD theses publicly defended between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2017

Jury composition:
Prof. dr. Mario Cools (University of Liège)
Prof. dr. Eric Cornelis (University of Namur)
Prof. dr. Stef Proost (KU Leuven)
Prof. dr. Veronique Van Acker (Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research)
Prof. dr. Bert van Wee (Delft University of Technology)
Prof. dr. Erik Verhoef (VU Amsterdam, Chair)
Prof. dr. Frank Witlox (Ghent University)

Winner:
Willem Himpe for his dissertation "Integrated algorithms for repeated dynamic traffic assignments: The iterative link transmission model with equilibrium assignment procedure", defended at KU Leuven (Promotor: Prof. dr. it. Chris Tampère)

2017

Eligibility:
PhD theses publicly defended between July 1, 2013, and June 30, 2015

Jury composition:
Prof. dr. Mario Cools (University of Liège)
Prof. dr. Eric Cornelis (University of Namur)
Prof. dr. Stef Proost (KU Leuven)
Prof. dr. Veronique Van Acker (Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research)
Prof. dr. Bert van Wee (Delft University of Technology)
Prof. dr. Erik Verhoef (VU Amsterdam, Chair)
Prof. dr. Frank Witlox (Ghent University)

Winners:
Hugo E. Silva for his dissertation "Airport pricing policies: airline conduct, price discrimination, dynamic congestion and network effects" defended  at VU Amsterdam (Promotor: Prof. dr. Erik Verhoef)
&
Fariya Sharmeen for her dissertation "Dynamics of social networks and activity travel behaviour" defended at Eindhoven University of Technology (Promotor: Prof. dr. ir. Harry Timmermans)