Florence School of Regulation Transport Area is excited to welcome two new Research Associates and a Research Fellow this February!
Irina Lapenkova, Research Associate
Before joining the FSR team as Research Associate in February 2018 Irina Lapenkova was employed by the city of Turku (Finland). She represented interests of the city of Turku in St. Petersburg (Russia). Irina was responsible for establishing and promoting cooperation between the city authorities and institutions, science parks, SMEs, research centers and NGOs. Prior to that Irina worked in the area of Public Relations.
Irina holds an MA Degree in EU Studies from the Centre International de Formation Europeenne (CIFE) and a BA degree in Finnish Language and Culture from St. Petersburg State University. Irina was granted a scholarship to study as an exchange student at the University of Turku (Finland) for her undergraduate studies. In 2016 Irina gained a qualification of Policy Officer in European and International Organizations (CIFE, Berlin). She speaks Russian, English, and Finnish. Irina is particularly interested in maritime transport policies and new mobility trends.
Diego Giron Estrada, Research Associate
Diego worked as an urban planner and mobility expert for the Municipality of Guatemala City for over 10 years. As a consultant he was one of the main professionals in charge of designing, planning and coordinating the BRT system (TRANSMETRO) of Guatemala City, implementing the Master Plan for Alternative Transport (Bike paths network in Guatemala City) and its integration to the public transport system. In addition, he also conducted urban revitalization and sustainability research. In recent year he also served as a member of several multicultural teams in The Netherlands working as a consultant in Metabolic, Amsterdam and Erasmus University IHS, Rotterdam, before joining FSR team as Research Associate. His research interests are deeply rooted in a multi-sectoral and interdisciplinary approach to assess sustainability challenges in an urban context.
Diego holds a BS in architecture and an MSc in Urban Management and Development with a specialization in Urban Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change from IHS Erasmus Rotterdam
Matthias Klumpp, Research Fellow (February-April 2018)
Prof. Dr. Matthias Klumpp studied business administration and economics at the University of Leipzig and the IECS Strasbourg (France) as well as education and higher education management at the Humboldt-University Berlin and the University of Kassel (INCHER) in Germany. He received his Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Leipzig in 2007 with a thesis on information and risk management in universities under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Thomas Lenk (Public Finance) and with a research stay at the University of Sydney (Australia, Prof. Dr. Frank Stilwell). From 2007 on he has been working as a professor at the FOM University of Applied Sciences Essen, since 2009 leading the Institute for Logistics and Service Management. Since 2011 he also leads the BMBF Research Group HELENA at the Institute for Production and Industrial Information Management at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Campus Essen.
The research focus of Prof. Dr. Klumpp is structured in five main areas: Logistics Education and Artificial Intelligence, Sustainable Logistics, Dynamics in Logistics Systems, Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Logistics Management, and Infrastructure as well as Service Efficiency Analysis (DEA). His research project as Visiting Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies will be: European Mobility Networks of the Future.
