Dr. J.M. (Jaap) Vleugel

Range

When I studied General Economics, my professor in Macro-economics (Huisman) once told us to be prepared to work in a completely different area after your graduation. This advice came in a period of economic hardship. I learned not to depend on just one field or tool, but explore many. Apart from providing economic independence, this strategy helps to prevent overspecialisation, a precursor of loss of creativity and ultimately stagnation or redundancy, typical features of ageing. The ability to quickly move from one field, perspective or scale level to another or combine them, gives many degrees of freedom when dealing with practioners, students and colleagues. Coaching young interdisciplinary students in how to carry out research allows one to experience new things almost every week. If you speak the language of science and business alike, match-making creates a serious amount of social (economic) value.
Interestingly, technology is a black box in economic theory, while here at TU Delft engineering is my prime concern. Blending economic and engineering knowledge, experience and tools gives a very versatile toolkit.

I have (education) experience with:
- Logistics operations, engineering & management;
- Sustainability of transport (equipment) and energy/fuels;
- Asset management and maintenance;
- Railway technology and services;
- Airport design & operations;
- Maritime transport and container handling;
- Other transport and traffic (public transport, emerging technologies);
- Built environment (housing, well-being, environment);
- Transport~ and infrastructure policy and planning;
- Economic (cba) and financial decision-making (business cases).

 [05-11-2023]