AITAA and AITAA Philippine Chapter proudly congratulate our 2009 AITAA Distinguished Alumni Awardee for International Affairs, Prof. Dr. Anthony Chiu (SAT-IEM 1988), for having been elected President of the International Foundation for Production Research (IFPR) at its Board Meeting on July 23, 2023, Sunday in Romania, in conjunction with the 27th International Conference of Production Research (ICPR) hosted by the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. Anthony served as Deputy Secretary General and Secretary General in IFPR from 2014-2018, and 2019-2023, respectively.
Anthony is the first Filipino and first ASEAN who was elected as the President of this production research community since 1961. Anthony was elected to the Board of the IFPR in 2011 at Stuttgart, Germany; and chaired the international conference in 2015 at Manila, as hosted by the Philippine Institute of Industrial Engineers (PIIE). Currently there are 52 Board Members elected from 22 economies worldwide. There are three ASEAN board members currently, and Anthony’s academic adviser at AIT, Prof. Dr. Mario Tabucanon (SAT-IEM 1974 & 1977), is the first ASEAN board member.
The first international conference was prepared in the 1960s and held in 1971 by the IJPR founding Editor-in-chief Prof. Norman Dudley of the University of Birmingham, being the heartland of the industrial revolution. It was such a success that Professor C. H. Gudnason agreed to host the second conference in Denmark. His conference was the beginning of the series of conferences held around the world in Summer every other year.
IFPR has two official high impact ISI journals; namely the (Taylor) International Journal of Production Research (IJPR) and the (Elsevier) International Journal of Production Economics (IJPE). IFPR currently provides PhD and early career training workshops back-to-back with its biennial international conference and the annual European regional conferences. IFPR also runs annual regional conferences in Asia Pacific, Americas, and Africa, Europe, and Middle East regions.
The Asia Pacific annual events are carried out in partnership with the Asia Pacific Industrial Engineering and Management Society (APIEMS), wherein Anthony is also one of the founders in 1990s. The 2023 IFPR-AP and APIEMS Conference will be hosted by the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in Kuala Lumpur on October 22-26, and the 2025 ICPR will be hosted by the Universidad de La Sabana on July 13-17, 2025 in Bogota, Colombia. ICPR events issued Springer Proceedings and special issues of both IJPR and IJPE.
Anthony returned to the Philippines from AIT in 1988, and since then served at the De La Salle University. He rose from Assistant Professor in 1989 to concurrently holding five University responsibilities as the Presidential Adviser on Sustainability (effective Sep 2023), University Fellow (lifetime), Don Antonio Conjuanco Professorial Chair, Distinguished Full Professor, and Research Professor (tier A). Anthony also served the Philippine government since 2004 as a member (rank of Commissioner) of the National Adjudication Board at the Department (Ministry) of Environment and Natural Resources. Anthony is also the only ASEAN member at the United Nations International Resource Panel. He has been official delegate of the Philippines to several UN Summits, including the Rio+20. Nonetheless, Anthony is AITAA-Philippines Chapter President in 1996-1998 and continued to serve in the recent boards. He currently supports the AITAA Headquarters, working in the Awards Committee under Prof. Dr. Alvin Culaba (SERD-Energy 1990).
For the past five years Anthony has been recognized locally and internationally too. He is recipient of the 2018 Department of Science and Technology (DOST) National Research Council of the Philippine Engineering Achievement Award, 2020 DOST National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) Environment Science Award Special Citation, 2022 PhilAAST Michael Purvis Award for Sustainability Research, 2023 Philippine Federation of Professional Associations (PFPA) Distinction Awardee in Industrial Engineering, and 2023 Philippine-American Academy of Science and Engineering (PAASE) Severino and Paz Koh Lectureship Award in Engineering.
Anthony got married to Teresita Chiu in 1996 and included the AITAA GBM at Korea as part of his honeymoon. Truly AIT family, he has three children who are all working now in various corporate positions.
Prof. Chiu posed with the Hon. Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, Rector and Vice Rector of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, and IFPR Past President.