Germán Paredes-Belmar, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, School of Industrial Engineering

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile

Hello! Welcome to my webpage.

I am an associate professor at the School of Industrial Engineering in Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. My research field is focused on operations research and operations management, with a specific interest in applied urban logistics, vehicle routing, facility location, and network design problems. My current research projects involve last-mile delivery, recyclable and organic waste collection, and network design.

In addition to these projects, I'm also interested in research areas such as Milk transport, HAZMAT transport, Humanitarian Logistics, Production Planning, etc.

Education

Bs.C. Engineering Sciences, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Concepción, Chile, 2006.
Industrial Engineering, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Concepción, Chile 2008
Ms.C. Engineering Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, 2016
Ph.D. Engineering Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, 2016

Experience

As an essential part of my education, I was very fortunate to have many valuable research experiences:

At Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, my advisor, Vladimir Marianov, and I introduced, modeled, and solved various vehicle routing problems with multiple-product loading and mixing. Successful applications were designed for milk collection and Hazmat collection problems.
At Universidad del Bío-Bío, my advisor, Carlos Obreque, and I introduced, modeled, and solved the Median Shortest Path Problem.
From September 2014 until December 2020, I was an Assistant Professor in the Engineering Sciences Department at Universidad Andres Bello.

Participation in Research Grants

Funded by a Government Institution

FONDECYT Regular 1250602: "Last-Mile Delivery problems with in-building deliveries, crew assignments, and vehicle fleet design in urban areas". Principal Investigator. Research Team: Co-Investigators - Dr. Guillermo Latorre (UBIOBIO), Dr. Andrés Bronfman (UNAB).
FONDECYT Regular 1241471: "A sustainable framework for designing an urban recyclable waste collection system". Co-Investigator. 2024-2027. Research Team: Principal Investigator - Dra. Carola Blazquez (UNAB), Co-Investigator - Dra. Elizabeth Montero (UTFSM).
FoVi-ANID 634816. "Puertos 5.0: La siguiente revolución en transporte sustentable". Investigator. 2024
FONDEF IDeA I+D Genérico ID22I10107: "Desarrollo de la herramienta tecnológica RESCOL para el diseño de recolección colaborativa de residuos sólidos domiciliarios en zonas urbanas". Chile. Deputy Director, 2023-2024. Research Team: Director - Dra. Carola Blazquez (UNAB), Researchers - Dra. Elizabeth Montero (UTFSM), Dr. Iván Franchi (UNAB), Dra. Leslie Pérez (PUCV), Dr. Alejandro Lamas (NEOMA Business School)
FONDECYT Regular 1210183: "Vertical and horizontal routing problems with time dependency". Principal Investigator. 2021-2024. Co-Investigators: Dr. Guillermo Latorre (UBIOBIO), Dr. Andrés Bronfman (UNAB).
FONDECYT Iniciación 11170102: “Vehicle routing problems with multiple-product loading and mixing”. Principal Investigator, 2017-2020.
FONDAP 15110017: “Natural Disaster Management in Chile– CIGIDEN". Research Assistant, 2013-2015
FONDECYT Regular 1130265: "Location And Routing of Undesirable Items". Research Assistant, 2013-2016
FONDECYT Regular 1100296: "Extensions of Covering Location Models, Quality of Service and User Choice". Research Assistant, 2010-2013

Funded by a Private or Universities

UNAB DI 2-17 RG: “Vehicle Routing Problems with Multiple Products and Mixing" Chile. Principal Investigator, 2017-2018
UNAB DI-1248-16/RG: “Scale Economies on hub location models”. Co-Investigator, 2016-2017. Director - Dr. Armin Lüer-Villagra (UNAB)
HEAT: "Health, Energy, and Transportation AI-aided for Smart Cities", DI-Centenario. Co-Investigator. 2024-25. Financed by PUCV.
INES I+D PUCV. "Desafíos de innovación, dirección de seguridad pública de la I.M. Viña del Mar". 2025. Financed by ANID through PUCV.
INES I+D PUCV. "Optimización de la programación de visitas domiciliarias para la prestación de cuidados en contextos con limitaciones de transporte" Co-Investigator. Financed by ANID through PUCV.

Academic Positions

Associate Professor: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. School of Industrial Engineering. September 2024 -
Assistant Professor: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. School of Industrial Engineering. January 2021 - September 2024
Assistant Professor: Universidad Andrés Bello. Engineering Sciences Department. August 2014 - December 2020.
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. School of Engineering. August 2011 – December 2012.
Instructor: Universidad Andrés Bello. School of Industrial Engineering. March 2011 – July 2014.
Instructor: Universidad del Bío-Bío. Department of Industrial Engineering. August 2008 – January 2009.

Other academic duties

Evaluation of applications for graduate scholarships awarded by Agencia Nacional de Investigación (ANID), Becas Chile program. 2017-
Participation in the Expert Committee Ingeniería I for the ANID/Becas Chile program. 2017-
Evaluation of ANID/FONDECYT Initiation-Postdoc-Regular grants (2020-2022).
Participation in the Expert Committee of Research Grants. ANID/FONDECYT Ingeniería 2 (2022-2023).
Reviewer in journals: Management Decision; Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review; Annals of Operations Research; Agriculture; Swarm Intelligence; Journal of Cleaner Production, European Journal of Operational Research; TOP, Computers & Industrial Engineering, ITOR, Waste Management, Waste Management & Research, Networks, Socio-economic planning Sciences, International Journal of Systems Science: Operations & Logistics.
Member of Evaluation Committee for UNAB Research Projects. (2025)

Committees

Committee Member - Doctorate in Industrial Engineering. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. 2021-.
Committee Member - Msc. Logistics and Operations Management. Universidad Andrés Bello. 2018-2020.
Regular Member of Evaluation Committee for Doctoral Thesis (PUCV), Master Thesis (PUCV; UNAB; UBIOBIO; UANDES), and Undergraduate Thesis (PUCV, UNAB, UBIOBIO).

Recognition, Awards, and Fellowships

PUC Fellowship for finishing Ph.D. Students. Vicerrectoría de Investigación at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. March 2013-December 2016.
CONICYT Scholarship for Ph.D. in Chile: 2009-2012.
Universidad del Bío Bío Award 2008. The best average among formal graduates from Industrial Engineering.
Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial Award - Universidad del Bío-Bío, 2008. The best average among formal graduates from Industrial Engineering.
Departamento de Matemáticas Recognition - Universidad del Bío-Bío, 2002. Recognition for approving a subject with a performance of more than 90%.