Theo Notteboom is Professor of maritime and port economics. He is Chair Professor 'North Sea Port' at the Maritime Institute, Faculty of Law and Criminology, Ghent University; Professor at Department of Transport and Regional Economics, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Antwerp; and Professor at Faculty of Sciences, Antwerp Maritime Academy. He is co-founder and co-director of Porteconomics.eu. He is a member of the Risk and Resilience Committee of International Association of Ports & Harbors (IAPH) where he co-authors the World Ports Tracker. He is Associate Editor of Maritime Economics & Logistics, Editor of Journal of Shipping and Trade and a member of the editorial boards of eight other leading academic journals in the field. Furthermore, he held the MPA visiting professorship in port management at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, and is visiting professor at various universities in Europe and Asia.

He previously held a full-time position as Full Professor and 'SAFEA High-end Foreign Expert' at Dalian Maritime University in China and Research Professor/Director of Center for Eurasian Maritime and Inland Logistics (CEMIL) at Shanghai Maritime University. In the period 2006-2014 he was academic head and professor at the Institute of Transport and Maritime Management Antwerp (ITMMA) of University of Antwerp (transformed into C-MAT in 2015). He was vice-president (2022-2024) and President (2010-2014) of International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME). Between 2009 and 2014 he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Belgian Institute of Transport Organizers (BITO), an institute of the Belgian Federal Government.

He published over 180 papers in first-tier academic journals and another 400 publications in the form of reports and contributions to books, proceedings and specialized press. He is editor/author of twelve academic books. His work is widely cited. He was a speaker, moderator or panellist at over 400 international academic and business conferences held across the world, many of them hosted by leading organizations. Throughout his career, he received 13 prestigious international awards for his research and achievements in the field. Theo Notteboom acts a rapporteur/expert to leading organizations and corporations in the field and has been involved as promoter or co-promoter in more than 100 academic research programs and (boardroom) consultancy studies on the port and maritime industry and logistics topics commissioned by organizations and numerous private companies and government departments in Europe, Africa and Asia.