Anastassios Perakis
Professor Perakis received a diploma degree in Naval Architecture, Mechanical and Marine Engineering (National Technical University of Athens, Greece 1977), and four graduate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: S.M. in Ocean Engineering (1980), S.M. in Operations Research (1980), Ph.D. in Ocean Engineering (1982) and S.M. in Management from MIT's Sloan School of Management (1982).
He joined the U. of Michigan as a tenure-track Assistant professor in 1982 and was promoted to Associate Professor (with tenure, in 1988). Dr. Perakis is an international authority in the field of probabilistic modeling and optimization of marine systems, including fleet routing and scheduling, systems and structural reliability, and environmental multi-objective economic impact analysis, and has published over 150 articles in journals and conference proceedings. He has directed the research of 7 Ph.D. and more than 30 MS and M.Eng. graduate students.
In his energy-related work, Prof. Perakis has conducted several sponsored research projects funded by the US Maritime Administration, the National and Michigan Sea Grant Programs, and UM Funding (two Rackham grants) to optimize of routing and scheduling fleets (both strategic and operational, including ship weather routing), and did more than two decades of work on "Fleet Deployment", the minimum-cost operation and scheduling fleets of ships. For most cargo ships, fuel cost is the largest operating cost category, so by minimizing total costs, fuel cost, fuel amounts, and also emissions are minimized.
His work on optimal energy utilization in marine transportation produced several PhD theses. Also, funded from Sea Grant, he also developed novel game theoretic models and solutions to determine modal shifts, with significant implication in terms of higher fuel consumption and environmental air and noise pollution, highway fatalities and injuries etc, due to proposed measures to limit the introduction of non-indigenous species in the Great Lakes and the Seaway).
Finally, work on Short Sea Shipping alternatives to Truck Transportation, with benefits in reduced energy consumption, alleviation of highway congestion, reduced environmental pollution, accidents, fatalities and injuries, and noise pollution. The recently passed Energy Legislation has a section on Short Sea Shipping as a way to achieve the above goals, and Prof. Perakis was recently appointed a member of a panel of the Natl. Academies-Transportation Research Board that is defining tasks for funded research in the area.
Anastassios Perakis is a MMPEI Faculty Fellow.