Gilbert Laporte CM is a full professor of operations research at HEC Montréal. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Distribution Management. Laporte has been awarded the Order of Canada and the Innis-Gérin Medal.
Laporte earned a bachelor's in mathematics from McGill University and a master's degree from Lancaster University. He moved to London with his wife to pursue a PhD from the London School of Economics in operational research.[1][2]
Upon earning his PhD, Laporte joined the Computer Science Department at the Université de Montréal as a research assistant. In 1976, he was appointed assistant professor at HEC Montréal.[3] Four years later he was promoted to associate professor and eventually to full professor in 1986.[4] In the 1990s, he was the recipient of the 1994 Award of Merit from the Canadian Operational Research Society and the 1999 Jacques-Rousseau Prize for Interdisciplinarity from the Association canadienne-française pour l'avancement des sciences (Acfas).[5] In 2001, he was named in the inaugural Canada Research Chair in Distribution Management[6] and was awarded the Grand Prize for Teaching Excellence by HEC Montréal.[5] As he continued in academia, Laporte continued to be recognized for his contributions in the field of operations research and quantitative methods. In 2004, Laporte received the Glover-Klingman Award[7] and TSL Best Paper Award from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.[8] The next year, Laporte was named a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.[9]
In 2007, Laporte was the recipient of the Innis-Gérin Medal from the Royal Society of Canada for his sustained contribution to the literature of the social sciences.[10] The 2008–09 academic year was proven to be successful for Laporte. In April, Laporte was the recipient of the Gérard-Parizeau Award.[3] In June, Laporte was named an honorary member of the Omega Rho Honor Society from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.[11]
In 2012, Laporte was named the third most influential researcher in the field of management in Canada by the Hirsch-Index Benchmarking of Academic Research. He tied with Danny Miller for the Pierre Laurin Award.[4] At the conclusion of the 2013–14 Academic term, Laporte received the international honour of the Lifetime Achievement in Location Analysis from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.[12] Laporte took sabbatical leave from HEC from June 1 to December 31, 2015, and again from June 1, 2016, to December 31, 2016.[13] Prior to announcing his sabbatical, Laporte renewed his Canada Research Chair.[6] Upon his return, Laporte's academic achievements were recognized by the Eindhoven University of Technology with an honorary doctorate on April 22, 2016.[14]
By 2017, Laporte was credited with being the "world's most productive and influential author in operations research and management science" by Omega – The International Journal of Management Science.[15] During that academic year, he was the recipient of the 2017 Prix d'excellence FRQNT[16] and the Urgel-Archambault award in physics, mathematics, computer science and engineering. Laporte became the first HEC Montréal professor to ever receive this distinction.[5] The following year, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Liège[17] and received the 2018 Marie-Victorin award from the Quebec government.[18] In December 2018, Laporte was honoured with the Order of Canada.[19]
In 2019, Laporte received many accolades for his research. Such as, being elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering.[20] His research continued to advance and he was eventually awarded the Best Paper Award from the Production & Operations Management Society.[21] By April, Laporte had been recognized as one of the world's most productive and influential authors in the fields of computer science and electronics based on the Google Scholar index.[22] In June 2019, Laporte became only the third researcher to become a fellow of the Vehicle Routing and Logistics Optimization.[23] He also serves as an associate editor for the Journal of the Operational Research Society.[24]
In 2021, he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor Honoris Causa at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).[25] He was also awarded the 2021 Killam Prize in Engineering [26]
Laporte married full professor Ann Langley on August 3, 1974. Their daughter is an assistant professor at École de Technologie Supérieure.[2]
The Royal Society of Canada presented the 2007 Innis-Gérin Medal to internationally renowned researcher Gilbert Laporte