There have been decades of research in the field of humanitarian logistics, and academics in the field of logistics are becoming more and more interested in it. That being said, we still acquire insight and identify new problems with each disaster.

We have also observed various humanitarian logistics applications during Covid-19, e.g. for PCR test sites and vaccination centers. Unfortunately, the recent earthquake in Turkey has led us to re-evaluate the response cycle of disaster management. Close inspection reveals that this response phase actually leads to a variety of new applications of distribution logistics problems.

We have conducted many meetings and workshops with municipalities that were very active during the response of the Maraş Earthquakes. Many municipalities aim to have “earthquake resistant cities” with correct action plans and being ready for potential disasters. Based on our discussions with these municipalities, we have developed an “ideal action plan”. We also investigated the potential decision problems and linked these problems with OR literature.

Biography: Bahar Yetis Kara is a Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Bilkent University where she has been a faculty member since 2001. Dr. Kara holds an M.S. and Ph.D. degree from Bilkent University Industrial Engineering Department, and she worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at McGill University in Canada.

Dr Kara’s current research interests include distribution logistics, humanitarian logistics, hub location and hub network design. Dr. Kara is one of the founders and a member of the executive board of the EURO Working Group on Humanitarian Operations (HOpe). She is also a member of the executive board of Bilkent University and of Turkish OR Society. Dr. Kara editored 4 books and authored/co-authored more than 80 journal and conference papers.

Dr. Kara holds “Best Dissertation Award” given by INFORMS-UPS-SOLA (2001), TUBA-GEBIP (National Young Researchers Career Development Grant) reward (2008), IAP Young Researchers Award (2009), and TÜBİTAK Young Scientist Incentive Award (2010). She is currently working as an associate editor of Transportation Research- Part B, Journal of Operational Research Society, IIE Transactions, and Socio Economic Planning and Science.