IAME 2015 and Best Student Research Award to the Co-Author of the paper, Dr. Okan Duru

The 2015 Conference of International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), the leading society on maritime and business research, has been organized in Kuala Lumpur on 23-27 August 2015. The conference has been organized by Malaysia Institute for Supply Chain Innovation, a member of MIT Global Scale Network. The conference theme “Maritime 2025: The role of Maritime Clusters and Innovation in shaping future Global Trade” aimed at understanding the future trends and practices in the different sectors of the maritime industry. Around 200 participants from over 50 countries from academia and industry attended the event where they had the chance to actively participate in two panel sessions and listen to 144 research papers covering a range of disciplines and industry sectors among the many being maritime logistics, clusters, maritime strategy, port , port operations, maritime safety, environmental management, maritime policy, intermodal transportation, finance, maritime geography and more.

Best Student Research Award is given to Jason Angelopoulos, of (), for his paper titled “Spectral Dynamics of Dry Cargo Shipping Markets Theory of Long Waves – Fact or Artifact?” Dr. Okan Duru (Department of Maritime Administration, Texas A&M University at Galveston) also received award as a co-author of the paper. The award is sponsored by Department of Shipping, Trade and Transport, the , and a prize of €1,000 is presented to student author, Jason. Constantinos Chlomoudis from also contributed to the paper as a co-author.

Okan Duru, Nikitas Nikitakos, Helen Thanopoulou, Jason Angelopoulos and Athanasios A. (Thanos) Pallis (From left to right)

Dr. Duru also presented his paper titled “Shipping Forecasting Competition (S-Competition): Phase I – Dry Bulk Market” in which several forecasting methods are tested for dry bulk shipping data, and accuracy of these methods are reported for particular forecasting horizons.

Port Performance Research Network Port Performance Research Network (PPRN) meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur on 23th August 2015 and Dr. Grace Wang, Texas A&M University Galveston, and Dr. Athanasios Pallis, the University of the Aegean, served as the chair of the planning committee. Texas A&M University at Galveston sponsored the event and Dr. Okan Duru represented the institution in IAME 2015 Conference. PPRN is an informal network of maritime economists interested in issues of port policy. Founded and chaired by Dr. Mary R. Brooks, it was established at the International Association of Maritime Economists 2001 meeting in Hong Kong to undertake empirical testing of antecedents for port performance and governance and to identify key successes and failures in port reform.

PPRN Group Photo

IAME 2017 will be held in Kyoto Dr. Okan Duru is a committee member for IAME 2017 Kyoto, Japan. IAME 2017 will be held in Kyoto based on IAME Council decision taken at the time of IAME 2015.

Committee of IAME 2017 Organization

The Maritime Economist Magazine The Maritime Economist (ME Mag) is a magazine edited by the International Association of Maritime Economists. The aim of the magazine is to combine both theoretical and practical knowledge and promote collaborations among scholars and professionals in the maritime industry. Dr. Okan Duru (TAMUG, MARA) is the Editor-in-Chief of The Maritime Economist Magazine. ME Mag welcomes research articles in magazine format, and the key function of the magazine is promotion of academic studies. Further information can be found in the following link: http://www.mar-economists.org/MEMag/