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Prof.dr. Herbert Hamers

Prof.dr. Herbert Hamers

Full Professor
Expert areas: Health & Education (Health Care Management), Quantitative Methods (Game Theory, Mathematics, Operations Research, Statistics)

Biography

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4jxM9INaIA
Professor Hamers graduated with a degree in mathematics form the University of Nijmegen and completed his PhD at Tilburg University. Currently he is Professor of Game Theory and Operations Research at the Department of Econometrics and Operations Research of Tilburg University.

His research involves game theory and operations research. One part of his game theoretical research is concerned with studying the interaction between operations research problems and cooperative game theory. In particular, solution concepts and properties of cooperative transferable utility games that correspond to operations research problems are investigated. The following Operation Research games are enclosed in his research: sequencing games, Chinese postman games, traveling salesman games, assignment games, lot sizing games, spanning tree games.

Another part of his game theoretical research is devoted to applications of game theory to practice: cost allocation of ATM machines (prescribing an allocation of the costs taking into account location and number of users of different banks), insinking (a method that creates synergetic behaviour by costumers in an logistic environment by tariff determination), development economy (stimulating cooperation in rural households in Nigeria), cooperation in transportation networks ans structures of terroristic networks.

His OR research is concerned with studying optimisation problems in which very time consuming function evaluations and the absence of derivative information are the key elements. Such problems are common in design optimisation, where time-consuming function evaluations are carried out by simulation tools (e.g., FEM, CFD). Algorithms are developed to tackle these problems.

He published among others in the following journals: Mathematical Programming, European Journal of Operational Research, Discrete Applied Mathematics, Games and Economic Behaviour and International Journal of Game Theory. His teaching expertise is in the field of mathematics and statistics. Besides teaching he develops teaching material. This has resulted in three books.

Publications

  • van der Zanden, T., Bodlaender, H., & Hamers H. (2023). Efficiently computing the Shapley value of connectivity games with low-treewidth graphs. Operational Research, 23(6). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12351-023-00742-4
  • Hamers, H., Horozoglu, N., Norde, H., & Platz, T. T. (2022). On the properties of weighted minimum colouring games. Annals of Operations Research, 318(2), 963–983. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-021-04374-9
  • Estevez-Fernandez, A., & Hamers, H. (2020). Chinese postman games with multi-located players. European Journal of Operational Research, 285(2), 458–469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2020.01.062
  • Burgher, J., & Hamers, H. (2020). A quantitative optimization framework for market-driven academic program portfolios. International Journal of Educational Management, 34(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem-03-2018-0099
  • Hermans, B., Hamers, H., Leus, R., & Lindelauf, R. (2019). Timely exposure of a secret project: Which activities to monitor? Naval Research Logistics, 66(6), 451–468. https://doi.org/10.1002/nav.21862
  • Zai, F. H., Hamers, H., & McSharry, P. E. (2019). Evaluating the predictive accuracy of corn phenological durations in Iowa and Illinois. Agronomy Journal, 111(3), 1128–1140. https://doi.org/10.2134/agronj2018.04.0294
  • Hamers, H., Klijn, F., & Slikker, M. (2019). Implementation of optimal schedules in outsourcing with identical suppliers. Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, 89(2), 173–187. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00186-018-0645-1
  • Braat, J., Hamers, H., Klijn, F., & Slikker, M. (2019). A selfish allocation heuristic in scheduling: equilibrium and inefficiency bound analysis. European Journal of Operational Research, 273(2), 634–645. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2018.08.024
  • Grundel, S., Borm, P., & Hamers, H. (2019). Resource allocation problems with concave reward functions. TOP, 27(1), 37–54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11750-018-0482-7
  • Campen, T., Hamers, H., Husslage, B., & Lindelauf, R. (2018). A new approximation method for the shapley value applied to the WTC 9/11 terrorist attack. Social Network Analysis and Mining, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-017-0480-z
Programs