Thursday, June 6, 2013

Final Thoughts and Photos from the NOFOMA Logistics Conference in Sweden

Yesterday was the last day of the NOFOMA Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, which I have been blogging about.

The high point (for me) was the plenary talk given by Professor Kevin Cullinane of the Edinburgh Napier University. Professor Cullinane is also a Visiting Professor (as I am) at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg.

His plenary talk was entitled: Emission Control Areas and Their Impact in Global Transport Chains. It was fascinating -- he spoke about what the International Maritime Organization is doing in regards to shipping and regulations -- especially those that have to do with sulfur oxide, which ships emit, and which are contributing to heavy pollution around ports (since the ships don't shut of their engines in ports). The health impacts are also huge. How ships will reduce their sulfur dioxide emissions (a problem with the fuel that they use) will be interesting and challenging -- from the use of scrubbers to switching and retrofitting ships to natural gas or even methane (with associated costs). We can expect many changes on the horizon in global transport and supply chains because of the impacts on the maritime and shipping industries.

The conference was terrific and I especially enjoyed meeting so many highly motivated doctoral students from the Nordic countries, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Iran,
and even the US. 

I leave you with some photos from NOFOMA 2013. Additional ones are available on my earlier blogspost here as well as here, where tips on how to do research and to review papers can also be found.


The next conference will be held next June in Copenhagen, Denmark.