Gunnar Stefansson is a Professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Iceland and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. Since July 2023, he has also served as Vice President Research at the University of the Arctic (UArctic).

At the University of Iceland, he is the Director of the Engineering Research Institute, overseeing the research activities of all engineering departments. His responsibilities include coordinating master’s, doctoral, and post-doctoral research, as well as managing project funding secured both domestically and internationally—primarily through EU programmes.

Before his academic career, Gunnar held several management positions in the business sector. He holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Iceland and earned his Ph.D. in 2004 from Chalmers University of Technology, based on research focused on transport management across the four major transport modes. His work emphasizes efficiency, digitalization, and strategies to reduce the environmental impacts of transport operations.

Research on transportation and logistics in the Arctic has been a central part of Gunnar’s work, exploring operations in rural regions and the Northern Sea Routes, both west and east. Since 1998, he has participated in numerous research projects funded by national agencies in Sweden and Iceland, as well as by the European Union. He has published extensively in high-impact journals and has served as a guest editor for several international journals over the years.