Lissa Melis (L.)

Dr. Lissa Melis is Assistant Professor Operations Research at the School of Business and Economics of Maastricht University. 

Lissa started her academic career with a PhD in Applied Economic Sciences (Operations Research) at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. During her PhD, supported by an FWO (Research Foundation Flanders) fellowship, she introduced the on-demand bus routing problem, a dial-a-ride problem with bus stop assignment. After obtaining her PhD, she was a finalist in the Flemish PhD Cup, where she developed her passion for science communication. Before starting her position in Maastricht, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Penn State University, PA, USA in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department, working on diverse urban transportation problems. She is a BAEF (Belgian American Educational Foundation) alumni, and obtained a fellowship of the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in the USA.

Her research focuses on the development and analysis of heuristic algorithms to optimize urban transport and logistics. While she also works on other applied optimization problems—such as scheduling or warehouse-related challenges—the common thread is a strong focus on real-world applicability. More recently, she has been investigating Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) and its potential synergy with Operations Research techniques. Her applied orientation is also why she actively collaborates with industry partners such as MUMC+.

She teaches courses across Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, and heuristic algorithm design/ Operations Research.

Other activities: 

• Member of the QE Management Team
• QE Outreach Lead
• ORBEL (Operations Research Belgium) Board Member
• Beta Research School for Operations Management and Logistics Board Member