A civil engineer by training—BSc 1975 from the Technion in Israel, SM 1977 and PhD 1978, both from MIT—Yossi has spent much of his career applying mathematics, operations research and computer science methods to innovations in transportation and logistics.

He started his career studying the application of computer models to urban transportation networks and is the author of the leading textbook on the subject. In the mid 1980s, he changed the focus of his research and teaching from public, passenger transportation to freight transportation, logistics and carrier operations. He has developed decision support systems for motor carrier operations—many leading motor carriers now use software he developed—as well as for rail-car distribution, vehicle routing and scheduling, container positioning, terminal location and other carrier problems.

He has also worked with leading manufacturers in the US and abroad on a variety of domestic and international logistics issues -- including mode and carrier selection, distribution planning, inventory/transportation trade-offs and third party logistics—and as a part of that work has developed a number of decision support systems now in use at many shippers.

He is the author of over fifty publications in leading scientific journals, as well as co-founder of a pioneering third-party logistics firm and of a leading software supplier to the transportation industry. In addition to teaching business logistics and decision support systems at MIT, Professor Sheffi is a frequent speaker in scientific and professional forums and serves as a consultant to leading US and European shippers and carriers.

Click here to visit Professor Sheffi's personal website.