Stefan Nickel obtained his PhD in mathematics at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany in 1995. From 1995 to 2003 he was first assistant and then associate professor in mathematics at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern. After a full professor position at the Saarland University (Chair of Operations Research and Logistics) from 2003 to 2009 he became one of the directors of the Institute for Operations Research at the KIT in April 2009.

Stefan Nickel is also member of the scientific advisory board, as well as the management board, of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Mathematics (ITWM) in Kaiserslautern, Germany. He has authored or co-authored four books as well as more than 80 scientific articles mainly in the area of location, supply chain management, health care and logistics. In addition he had numerous research contracts with well-known industrial companies (e.g. Lufthansa, Miele, SAP). Stefan Nickel is editor-in-chief of Computers & Operations Research since October 2006 and member of the editorial board of Health Care Management Science.

He has coordinated the Health Care working group within the German OR society (GOR) and is now member of the board of directors of the GOR. Moreover he is the speaker of the EURO working group on locational analysis.

Stefan Nickel has supervised 9 PhD theses and has currently 6 PhD candidates – one of them financed directly through an industrial cooperation. Last year Dr. Sebastian Velten (one of the finished PhD candidates) won the SOLA award, a bi-annual price for the best PhD thesis in location theory worldwide. He has also been the member of numerous international PhD committees.