Virgílio Machado holds a Ph.D. in Computer Integrated Manufacturing (Cranfield University, UK). He is a full professor in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (www.unl.pt/). He teaches operations and production management. He has launched several education programs: PhD and MSc in Industrial Engineering, Project Management, Lean & Green Sustainability and Entrepreneurship. His main scientific activities are directed to the design of new manufacturing and supply chain management systems. He was the dean of the NOVA School of Science and Technology (Portugal), and he is the president of the Portuguese Institute of Industrial Engineers.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/virg%C3%ADlio-cruz-machado-a7295b7/

Sanjay Mehrotra is a Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at Northwestern University. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS) and has served on the INFORMS board of directors. He has also been the chair of INFORMS Optimization Society. Mehrotra is the founding director of the Center for Engineering and Health, which is a part of the Institute for Public Health and Medicine at Northwestern University. He is an expert in methodologies for decision making under uncertainty, and its applications. Professor Mehrotra’s current research is focused on robust decision making. His health systems engineering work encompasses a wide range of topics that include predictive modeling, hospital operations modeling, and policy modeling. He has been the department editor for the Optimization department and Health Systems Engineering department for the journal IIE-Transactions. He is also the founding co-Editor of Healthcare section for the journal Naval Research Logistics. He has served as associate editor for Operations Research and Mathematical Programming. Mehrotra’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, Department of Energy, and National Institute of Health.