My research centres on questions concerning how complex random systems should be optimally controlled. This work ranges from theoretical analyses of novel methodologies through to more applied work, focussing on practical applications. Application areas of current interest include:

• The optimal management of networks of inventories (eg, retail outlets);
• How manufacturing companies should manage the outsourcing of warranty repair work;
• How customers should be routed for service in complex service systems.
• Cargo revenue management
• The optimal processing of intelligence information
• The optimal deployment of resources for defensive surveillance

I have been awarded the 2013 Beale Medal of the Operational Research Society for 'a sustained contribution to the theory, philosophy or practice of Operational Research.'

In 2016, I was made a Fellow of INFORMS.

I was awarded the 2017 Harold W Kuhn Award, jointly with co-authors Kyle Lin and Michael Atkinson, for the outstanding paper published in Naval research Logistics over a three year window.

I founded NATCOR, an EPSRC-funded national taught course centre in Operational Research (OR) in 2006. I directed NATCOR for its first six years, including securing follow-up funding from EPSRC in 2011.

For the period 2008-2014 I directed the LANCS Initiative, a £13M Science and Innovation project to expand research capability in foundational OR in the UK. This project is co-funded by EPSRC and Lancaster, Nottingham, Cardiff and Southampton universities.

I chair STOR-i, an EPSRC-funded Centre for Doctoral Training in statistics and OR with substantial industrial engagement. The centre is joint betweeen the Departments of Management Science and Mathematics and Statistics. 

I chair the Research Panel of the Operational Research Society. 

I am a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College. Until the end of 2016, I served on the EPSRC  Mathematical Sciences Strategic Advisory Team until April 2015.

I was a member of sub-panel 10 (mathematical sciences) for REF2014.

I currently serve on the editorial board of Naval Research Logistics.

I am a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Smith Institute.

• 1976 PhD, Cambridge University
• 1976-2001: School of Mathematics and Statistics, Newcastle University (appointed lecturer, 1976, promoted senior lecturer 1986, promoted reader 1991, promoted professor 1993)
• 1989-1990 Senior Research Fellow, Department of OR, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
• 2002-2005: Management School, Edinburgh University. Professor of Management Science
• 2005-: Department of Management Science, Lancaster University, Professor in Statistics and OR (this appointment was joint with the Department of Mathematics and Statistics until 2011)
• 2008-, Distinguished Professsor in OR, Lancaster University