Professor Richard de Neufville is a Professor of Engineering Systems and Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT. Professor de Neufville has written 7 major texts, most recently Airport Systems Planning, Design and Management (with A. Odoni) and Flexibility in Engineering Design (with S. Scholtes). He works closely with the Infrastructure Institute of the Indian School of Business. Professor De Neufville’s awards include an honorary doctorate from Delft University of Technology; the McKelvey award for Airports; and US Federal Aviation Administration Excellence in Aviation Education award.

Professor de Neufville’s research focuses on developing effective ways to plan, design, and manage the deployment of large-scale infrastructures, such as transportation facilities and networks; urban real estate and water supply; facilities for electricity supply and distribution; and protection against the effects of climate change. The common core issue is that future demands and constraints on these systems are highly uncertain. The need is thus for developmental strategies that embed flexibilities (‘real options’) that enable system managers to reduce downside risks and take advantage of upside opportunities. In detail, the research develops tools to identify and evaluate flexible design strategies, and tests them through application to real-world cases.

See http://ardent.mit.edu/real-_options/