Massimo Di Francesco graduated in Civil Engineering at the University of Cagliari in 2003 and received the PhD in Land Engineering from University of Cagliari in 2007. His PhD thesis was selected as a finalist of the 3rd MEL PhD international competition on Maritime Economics and Logistics in 2008. He got a one-year postdoctoral position at CIRRELT (Montreal) from February 2007 to February 2008 (supervisor prof Teodor Gabriel Crainic). Next, he got several research contracts from the University of Cagliari (supervisor prof Paola Zuddas). Since 2011 he has taught the course of “Statistica e Teoria dell’Informazione” for the Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science at the University of Cagliari. In 2015 he joined the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Cagliari as a Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Operations Research. In 2017, he got the national qualification as an associate professor in Operations Research.

His main research interests regard quantitative methods to improve decision-making processes. The methodologies are those of Operations Research. Current application areas are maritime terminal management and multimodal logistics. In particular, his research activity concerns optimization models and algorithms for drayage and vehicle routing problems, reverse logistics (e.g. empty container repositioning) and workforce management. He has been involved in several research projects on these topics (e.g. PRIN, MIUR Smart Cities).

Massimo Di Francesco has authored/coauthored 1 book, about 20 papers published in international journals and several publications in proceedings of international conferences. He is a referee of several journals on the topics of Operations Research, Transportation and Logistics (e.g. Annals of Operations Research, Computers & Industrial Engineering, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Naval Research Logistics, Public Transport, Operational Research, Transportation Research part B: Methodological, Transportation Research part C: Emerging Technologies, Transportation Research part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Transportation Review). He is the organizer of Odysseus 2018, which is one of the most relevant conferences in the field of freight transportation and logistics.