Reinout Heijungs - Curriculum vitae

Reinout Heijungs is associate professor at the Department of Operations Analytics of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.


After his graduation in 1987 in theoretical physics from Groningen University, he went to Leiden University, first as an assistant professor in physiological physics at the Medical Faculty, and next to the Institute of Environmental Sciences, as a researcher and assistant professor in environmental science.

In 1997 he received his PhD (cum laude) for his thesis entitled Economic Drama and the Environmental Stage. After taking PhD, he spent a four-years research period at the Department of Spatial Economics of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, but returned fully to Leiden University in 2002.

Since 2013, he is again with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, as an associate professor in quantitative methods. A principle task is organizing and teaching classes in mathematics and statistics for several BSc programmes.

So far, he has successfully supervised 8 PhD students, and authored/co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed articles as well as 4 books. He is or has been member of several editorial boards, review committees, organizing committees and PhD committees. He is research fellow of the Tinbergen Institute, as well as member of the Beta Research School for Operations Management and Logistics.

Characteristic keywords, now or in the past, are (in alphabetical order): computational methods, data analysis, environmental footprints, human and environmental risk assessment, input-output analysis, life cycle assessment, linear algebra, mathematics, meta-analysis, non-linear dynamics, physical economics, scientific software development, statistics, substance flow analysis, thermodynamics.

He still has a small task at Leiden University, advising PhD students and others.

More information is at http://personal.vu.nl/R.Heijungs/.


A full list of my publications is here.

I authored/co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and 4 books at scientific publishers.

Articles: List of articles with links to pdfs Book 1: The computational structure of life cycle assessment. Book 2: A theory of the environment and economic systems. A unified framework for ecological economics and decision-support. Book 3: Handbook on life cycle assessment. Operational guide to the ISO standards. Book 4: Levenscyclusanalyse voor onderzoekers, ontwerpers en beleidsmakers.

Please refer to the dedicated page on my books.

My most-cited publications are:

Recipe 2008. Recent developments in life cycle assessment. Handbook on life cycle assessment. Operational guide to the ISO standards. Environmental life cycle assessment of product. Guide - October 1992. Environmental life cycle assessment: Past, present, and future. The computational structure of life cycle assessment.
Altogether, Google Scholar mentions more than 35000 citations.

Various research portals can be used to access my work:
My h-index (by October 2023) is: It clearly depends on how you count.


My Erdős number is at most 4, thanks to publications with Luciano Pietronero.


I have scientific papers in:
I have books and book chapters in books at


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