Pirmin Fontaine studied Mathematics (Diploma) with minors in computer science and economics at the Technical University of Munich and spend during that time one year at the Informatics faculty of the Chalmers Tekniska Högskola in Gothenburg, Sweden. After that, he wrote his dissertation on efficient algorithms for hierarchical decision processes in the area of transportation and logistics at the Chair of Logistics and Supply Chain Management of the TUM School of Management. In 2016, he finished his PhD with highest distinction and in 2017, he received the GOR Dissertation award of the German Operations Research Society. During his PhD, he spent already one year as a visiting researcher at the CIRRELT in Montreal, one of the leading research centers on transportation and logistics worldwide. Pirmin Fontaine continued these collaborations as a one-year postdoc at the Université du Québec à Montréal and the CIRRELT bevor returning to the TU Munich.
In his research, Prof. Fontaine is focusing on challenges in urban logistics in both the area of mobility and the area of transportation. Since 2018, he is leading the research project RadLast, funded by the German Ministry of Transportation and digital Infrastructure, where the potential of cargo bikes for the last mile is analyzed. Besides these social challenges, Pirmin Fontaine is also working on topics in the area of network planning, vehicle routing, and supply chain management. Particularly, challenges and opportunities of digitalization and big data are addressed. Further, in collaborations with the industry decision support tools are developed. These tools use state-of-the-art operations research techniques, e.g. mathematical optimization and machine learning.
These topics are also part of his teaching. Students should learn to understand logistic and operations management processes and how to develop mathematical solution methods to solve these problems. Prof. Fontaine has experience in teaching bachelor and master courses as well as giving workshops on PhD and MBA level.