Dries Verbraeken is a research associate at ITMMA. He has been granted a three year scholarship by the Antwerp Port Authority; his Ph.D will comprise port concession efficiency and will be promoted by prof.dr. Theo Notteboom. In the meantime he is finishing his MSc in Maritime Sciences at the University of Antwerp. When joining ITMMA, Dries worked on a one-year project for the province of Antwerp.The results of the project will be presented by the province council to press and broad public in March 2010. Dries is holding two master degrees (MSc), one in Political Sciences (2005) and one in International Relations and Diplomacy (2006) of the University of Antwerp. His scientific interest is focussed on logistics, port concessioning, port productivity; European railway policy and history of the city of Antwerp.