More than two years ago, Beta started a transition process aimed at narrowing its contentwise focus and expanding its activities to a national level. The ‘Launch event’ of the new Beta Research School on 2 November, marks the start of a new phase. It also marks the start of a new scientific director. Ivo Adan has been appointed as the new director by the board of the Eindhoven University of Technology. He succeeds Geert-Jan van Houtum.

Transition period ends
What happened in Beta during the last two years? First, Beta defined its scope as Operations Management and Logistics, and the interfaces with other disciplines. Multiple groups of the University of Twente and Eindhoven University of Technology continued their membership of Beta. Beta was happy to welcome new groups. The OM groups of Maastricht University, Wageningen University & Research, and the VU Amsterdam joined Beta per 1 January 2017. Further, Beta collaborates with research school TRAIL, in which the OM groups of Delft University, Erasmus University, and the University of Groningen participate. In this way Beta shapes its ambition: to be the academic platform within the Netherlands for Operations Management and the interfaces with neighboring areas, for PhD students, postdocs, and faculty members.

New phase with new scientific director
At the start of this new Beta Period, the new Beta scientific director prof. Ivo Adan will take over leadership of prof. Geert-Jan van Houtum, who led Beta in the last nine years and who guided Beta to its new future. Ivo Adan’s mission is to continue the building of a strong OML community in the Netherlands. Ivo has lots of experience within Beta as researcher and as member of the Executive Board. He also served in the board of LNMB. The new Beta has similar aims as LNMB and has a similar organizational structure. Hence, Ivo’s experience with LNMB will be very helpful. Ivo himself belongs to the first generation of PhD students of the LNMB. He is fully aware of the benefits of a national network. During his PhD education he attended classes by, among others, Henk Tijms, Frank van der Duyn Schouten, Jan Karel Lenstra, Antoon Kolen and Wim Klein Haneveld, and during these classes he met future colleagues such as Richard Boucherie, Ger Koole and Frits Spieksma. In the LNMB network, he built up relationships for many years.

Ivo’s goal is to establish a similar network with Beta in the coming years and to create a national platform for the new OML generations.