Speaker: Dr. Peter Nijkamp  Professor, Dept. of Regional Economics, Free University Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Peter Nijkamp (1946) graduated from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, in the area of econometrics. He holds a Ph.D. (cum laude) in non-linear mathematical programming for industrial planning from the Erasmus University, Rotterdam. Since 1975 he is professor in regional and urban economics and economic geography at the Free University, Amsterdam. His main research interests cover plan evaluation, regional and urban planning, transport systems analysis, mathematical modeling, technological innovation, and resource management. In the past years he has focused his research in particular on quantitative methods for policy analysis, as well as on behavioral analysis of economic subjects. He has a broad expertise in the area of public policy, services planning, infrastructure management and environmental protection. In all these fields he has published various books and numerous articles. He has been an advisor to several Dutch Ministries, regional and local councils, employers, organizations, private institutions, the Commission of the European Communities (EC), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Conference of Ministers in Transport (ECMT), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Roundtable of Industrialists, ICOMOS, and the World Bank.

He has been a great professor at several universities in Europe, Asia and America. He is doctor honoris causa at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels and fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Science and the World Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is past-president of the Regional Science Association International and chairman of the Network on European Communications and Transport Activity Research (NECTAR). Peter Nijkamp is the 1996 recipient of the Netherlands Spinoza award.

Peter Nijkamp has been heavily involved in environmental research and environmental economics, both theoretically and empirically. He has a special interest in evolution methods, in particular multicriteria analysis.