HUMLOG Best Master Thesis Honourable Mention for Loretta Berger

external pageHanken School of Economicscall_made annually grants the external pageHUMLOG Board Awardcall_made to a master student writing the best thesis in the field of humanitarian logistics. In her thesis, Loretta Berger investigates characteristics and challenges of supply chain management for forensic missions in a humanitarian context. While forensic missions are at the heart of humanitarian action and, among others, support the identification of victims, they pose unique challenges to organizations that manage such missions. Specificity of many items implies a narrow set of potential suppliers worldwide, while other items are broadly available in countries. Organizations need to accommodate such variety, while the comparatively low demand of items for forensic missions often implies lower priority internally.

The thesis discusses specific challenges and potential resolves for organizations. Thesis work was conducted with our Humanitarian Operations and Supply Chain Management Lab (HumOSCM Lab) and in close exchange with the International Committee of the Red Cross (external pageICRCcall_made), one of ETH’s and the lab’s cooperation partners, and other actors in Humanitarian Forensic Action.

Ongoing interest of involved organizations and specialists as well as a recent publication in the external pageKriminalistikcall_made journal for criminalistics professionals underline the practical relevance of Loretta’s thesis project.