Dr. Matthias Winkenbach is a Principal Research Scientist at MIT, where he serves as the Director of Research of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. In this role, he manages CTL's research activities and shapes the center's strategic agenda of creating supply chain and logistics innovation and driving it into practice in collaboration with a global network of industry partners.
Dr. Winkenbach is the founder and director of the MIT Computational Analytics, Visualization, and Education (CAVE) Lab, a research group focused on developing human-centric user interfaces that make advanced supply chain analytics more accessible to decision-makers through interactive visualization and natural language controls. He is also the founder and director of the MIT Intelligent Logistics Systems Lab, which focuses on applications of operations research, artificial intelligence, and machine learning methods to transform logistics systems through intelligent automation, predictive analytics, and algorithmic decision-making.
Dr. Winkenbach received his Ph.D. in Logistics and his Masters in Business with specializations in Finance and Economics from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany. He also studied at NYU Stern School of Business in New York City and the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) in Montréal. His doctoral dissertation on optimal design of multi-tier urban delivery networks with mixed fleets was closely linked to a research project with the French national postal operator La Poste. His current research explores the intersection of Operations Research, Machine Learning, and Human Decision Making to design and optimize intelligent logistics systems.
Dr. Winkenbach won the Science Award for Supply Chain Management of the German Logistics Association (BVL) in 2014, was a finalist for the 2015 Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice, and received the Transportation Science Meritorious Service Award in 2022. He frequently publishes in high-impact peer-reviewed academic journals as well as practitioner-oriented outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and MIT Sloan Management Review. He serves as an Associate Editor for Transportation Science and as an Editorial Advisory Board Member for Transportation Research Part E.
