Philippe Wieser studied mechanical engineering at the EPFL, where he received his undergraduate (1977) and Ph. D. (1981) degrees. After a few years working in an engineering consulting company, he joined the EPFL as lecturer. His fields of research and teaching deal with logistics and information systems, integrated-logistics, supply chain optimization and health logistics. Since May 2000, Dr. Wieser is the executive directeur ot the International Institute for the Management of Logistics, involting the EPFL (Lausanne) and ENPC (Paris).