Prof. dr. G.G. (Frits) van Merode
Active as
Professor of Logistics and Operations Management in Health Care
Dean of Sciences
Current position
Frits van Merode has been appointed Dean of Sciences as of 1 November 2011. In this position, he will lead the development of education and research in natural sciences and technology including, in particular, the scheduled master’s programmes and research on Biobased Materials and Systems Biology. Van Merode will also be responsible for promoting research and education in the field of ‘smart devices’. These developments are closely related to the Maastricht Science Programme, the new natural sciences programme under the existing ‘Liberal Arts and Sciences’ cluster, which started in September 2011 with 48 students from 15 countries.
The above mentioned activities are also in line with the further development of new initiatives of Maastricht University and Maastricht UMC+ in education, research and valorisation at both the Chemelot Campus, a physical base for businesses, education and research organisations in the field of new materials, and the Maastricht Health Campus, a future hotspot for medical biotechnology. By participating in these two big open innovation campuses, UM actively contributes to knowledge valorisation within the region and the development of Brainport 2020, which is based in the joint collaboration of authorities, companies and knowledge institutions from South-East Netherlands.
Bio
Frits van Merode (1958) studied economics and philosophy at Erasmus University in Rotterdam and earned his PhD in Operational Research at Maastricht University, The Netherlands. He specialised in the modelling of health care systems using multi agent system techniques in which technical and behavioural aspects are combined. Since 2001 Frits van Merode has been full professor in logistics and operations management at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences at Maastricht University. He was Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences (2004-2006), Dean of the School of Life Sciences (2006 - 2011) and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (till November 2011). As one of the leaders and driving forces behind the merger of the faculties of health sciences and medicine, which preceded Maastricht UMC+, Van Merode was closely involved in the development of Maastricht UMC+. He has been a member of the Executive Board of UMC+ since its establishment in 2008 and currently specifically focusing on ICT, information policy and process optimisation.
Frits van Merode was responsible for developing and implementing the Maastricht University India strategy for partnership and innovation networks. He jointly established the Maastricht Education and Research Centre (MERC) in Bangalore and the Maastricht University India Institute (MUII) in Maastricht of which he was appointed scientific director for four years until January 2011. He will remain linked to these institutes as leader of the FHML research being carried out in India in the field of logistics and technology in health care. In addition to India, Prof van Merode has extensive work experience in the Netherlands, various European countries, Dutch Antilles, Africa, Middle East and Kazakhstan.
Research Interest
His main research projects are directed to the design of the layout of hospital buildings, intelligent workflow management systems and real-time scheduling systems. He has extensive experience and expertise in leading projects in this field both in the Netherlands and abroad. Most recently Frits van Merode established a research group in Operations Management and Operations Research in India; Bangalore & Madurai. This research group concentrates on the design and development of intelligent patient tracing, tracking and scheduling systems. The ultimate goal is to make health care much more patient friendly and much less expensive.
Philosophy & ambition
Health care should be available to all, worldwide. Therefore the challenges are to (re-)design global health care and develop technology which makes this possible. Frits van Merode’s ambition is to develop technology which is capable to fulfil this ambition and to prove this in innovative health care settings around the world.
See also: Maastricht University India Strategy
