Qinghe SUN - Research

"Process flexibility: A distribution-free approach to long chain resilience" (with Li Chen and Mabel Chou), accepted by Operations Research.
"Adaptive emergency operations: A three-stage robust optimization model" (with Li Chen, Tao Feng# and Lingxiao Wu), submitted.
"Analytics for On-demand Food Delivery: A Hurwicz Satisficing Perspective" (with Ziao Zhao# and Li Chen), under major revision.
- Finalist, INFORMS TSL Data-Driven Research Challenge 2025
"Mitigating the financial risks behind emission cap compliance: A case in maritime transportation" (with Li Chen, Mabel Chou, Qiang Meng), Production and Operations Management, 32(1), 283-300.

#: PhD students/Research assistants/Postdoctoral fellows under my supervision;*: Other student collaborator

Bunker Management

"Data-driven bunker refueling under price uncertainty" (with Mabel Chou), accepted by Production and Operations Management.
"An explainable multi-stage stochastic optimisation for bunker procurement planning" (with Wei Li, Ying Chen and Mabel Chou), under revision.

Liner Revenue Management

"Single-leg shipping revenue management for expedited services under ambiguous elasticity in transit-time-sensitive demand" (with Wei Li and Qiang Meng), Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 180, 102886.
"Joint liner container assignment and speed optimization with elastic demand and service differentiation" (with Kunlong Yang#, Zhen Cao# and Qiang Meng).

Shipping Finance

"Data-driven models for optimizing second-hand ship trading strategies under contextual information" (with Haoqing Wang* and Hans Wang), Naval Research Logistics (NRL), 2025.
"On the toxic trade-offs in ship-recycling" (with Mabel Chou) under revision.

Routing and Scheduling

"A branch-and-price approach for optimizing all-electric ships scheduling in waterborne transport" (with Xizi Qiao#, Ying Yang* and Hans Wang), under major revision.
"Vessel weather routing subject to sulfur emission regulation" (with Sang-Jeong Lee* and Qiang Meng), Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 177, 103235.

Freight Market

"Optimizing voyage charterparty (VCP) arrangement: Laytime negotiation and operations coordination" (with Mabel Chou and Qiang Meng), European Journal of Operational Research, 291(1), 263-270.
"Understanding the Baltic Dry Index (BDI): an explainable decomposition approach" (with Linfei Guan* and Ziao Zhao#), Maritime Policy & Management, 1-25.
"An empirical study of China-Singapore International Land-Sea Trade Corridor: Analysis from supply and demand sides," with Siying Zhu, Shuai Jia, and Qiang Meng. Transport Policy, 135, 1-10.

Bulk or Multi-Purpose Terminal

"An ADMM-based decomposition approach for flexible blending in port operations" (with Zhen Cao#, Tao Feng#, and Hans Wang), submitted.
"Berth allocation in dry bulk export terminals with channel restrictions" (with Zhen Cao# and Hans Wang), Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 178, 105263.
"Dry bulk terminal operations: A critical review of models and optimization methods" (with Zhen Cao# and Hans Wang), Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 178, 105221.
"Evaluating port efficiency dynamics: A risk-based approach" (with Li Chen and Qiang Meng), Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 166, 333-347.

Container Terminal

"A target-oriented robust optimization approach to automated guided vehicles repositioning at terminal apron" (with Linfei Guan*, Chenhao Zhou and Ada Che), accepted by International Journal of Production Research.

"Risk mitigation in green technology investment," with Li Chen, Mabel Chou, and Qiang Meng in Encyclopedia in Operations Management.

"A data-driven bunker planner system" [European Patent: EP4505383A2; Japan: JP2025511833A; China: CN119365888A; WIPO: WO2023195917A2]

"Adaptive emergency operations: A three-stage robust optimization model," National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), 01/2026-12/2028, PI.
"Robust flexibility design for operational efficiency and resilience," Hong Kong RGC General Research Funding (GRF), 01/2025-12/2026, PI.
"Optimising maritime network line design using reinforcement learning," Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) Fellowship, 02/2024-01/2026, Co-I (PI: Dr. Hong Ming Tan @NUS).
"Mitigating supply risks with process flexibility: theory and applications in maritime logistics," Hong Kong RGC Early Career Scheme (ECS), 01/2024-06/2026, PI.
"Port congestion modeling and management in a multi-participant framework," NSFC General Program, 01/2024-12/2027, Co-I (PI: Dr. Xiwen Bai @Tsinghua).
"Green liquefied natural gas (LNG) value chain," PolyU Start-up Fund, 03/2023-02/2025, PI.

I am looking for

PhD students who are interested in decision-making under uncertainty, with potential applications in transportation, logistics and supply chain management. Applicants with a bachelor’s or master’s degree in applied math, physics, industrial engineering, or a related field are welcome.
Postdoctoral Fellows in transportation and logistics.

If you are interested, please kindly attach your CV and transcript to the email. Competitive financial support is available (see https://www.polyu.edu.hk/gs/prospective-students/fellowship-scholarship-schemes/).