More Accolades Bestowed on Professor Bass Emory University, The Ohio State University, Groningen University in the Netherlands and the University of South Australia have all recently honored SOM Professor Frank M. Bass, Ph.D., bestowing highest academic accolades on him. Each university found a distinctive way to recognize Dr. Bass, Eugene McDermott University of Texas System Professor of Management, who is considered one of the founders of marketing science. Most recently, the University of South Australia in Adelaide announced the creation of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, named in honor of Dr. Bass and Professor Andrew Ehrenberg of South Bank University in London. Formerly the Marketing Science Centre, the institute is devoted to the discovery and applications of trends in marketing, consumer behavior and brand performance. The Australian university also awarded Dr. Bass an honorary doctorate, which Professor Byron Sharp, director of the newly named institute, presented at an October luncheon on the UTD campus. Professor Bass showed that it is possible to discover scientific laws concerning buying behavior, Professor Sharp said. (Professor Ehrenberg's major contribution to marketing science is the discovery of law-like regularities in buyer behavior.) Dr. Bass first earned international recognition with his development of the Bass Model in 1969. That mathematical model has been used to predict sales and life cycles of consumer products, from color televisions and disposable diapers to digital satellite radios. Two years ago, the research journal Management Science hailed his paper introducing the Bass Model as one of the most-cited research papers in the journal's 50-year history. Another recent tribute to Dr. Bass, a leading operations research theoretician and practitioner who has been an educator since 1957, came from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. In September, the university created the Frank M. Bass Chair, hailing him as the founder of marketing science as an academic discipline in the Netherlands. Dr. Bass's accomplishments also prompted The Ohio State University (OSU), where he was an associate professor from 1957 to 1961, to award him the Honorary Degree, Doctor of Business Administration, in August. OSU officials noted that he is a prolific researcher, dedicated teacher and effective mentor [who is] without peer in sharing knowledge with subsequent generations of doctoral students who carry on his legacy of exceptional scholarship. In June, the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS) Marketing Science Conference saluted Dr. Bass at Emory University in Atlanta with a dinner and meeting, the Conference to Honor Frank M. Bass. The institute previously had created the Frank M. Bass Dissertation Paper Award in his name, and he won an INFORMS Fellows Award in 2002. SOM Dean Hasan Pirkul, Ph.D., says Dr. Bass' accolades are well-deserved, and we are pleased to see him recognized in all these ways. Dr. Bass, a native of Cuero, Texas, received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin and a BBA from Southwestern University. He joined the faculty of Purdue University in 1960 and later became the Loeb Distinguished Professor of Management at Purdue's Krannert School of Management. He joined UTD in 1982. I feel very honored to be recognized in this way, Dr. Bass says I was inspired by some truly great people, and I hope that I can do the same for others. Student of Dr. Stecke Wins Best Paper Award Information systems and operations management (ISOM) Ph.D. student and teaching assistant Xuying (Daisy) Zhao (at right in photo below) won a Best Student Paper Award at the Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET) and $1,000 for Outstanding Student Paper for 2005 for her paper with her co-author and advisor, ISOM Professor Kathryn E. Stecke, Ph.D., (at left in photo). Dr. Stecke is an internationally respected scholar in the fields of flexible manufacturing and operations management. The work, Managing the Technology of Integrating the Production and Transportation Functions in Assembly and Flow Operations, studies optimal and near-optimal production schedules for a make-to-order manufacturing company fulfilling a commit-to-delivery order. Ms. Zhao and Dr. Stecke presented the paper at the conference in Portland, Oregon, in August. Established in 1989, PICMET, a nonprofit organization, disseminates information on technology management. Three SOM Researchers Awarded National Science Foundation Grant The National Science Foundation has awarded a $200,000, three-year research grant to three School of Management (SOM) professors to study risk and decision making as they relate to uncertainties in inventory stocks, a major issue in product supply chains. Alain Bensoussan, Ph.D., Distinguished Research Professor in Operations Management; Metin Ｂkanyildirim, Ph.D., assistant professor of information systems and operations management, and Suresh Sethi, Ph.D., Ashbel Smith Professor of Operations Management, are principal researchers. The study marshals the joint efforts of two SOM research centers, the Center for Intelligent Supply Networks (C4ISN) and the International Center for Decision and Risk Analysis (ICDRiA). Industry's supply networks of goods and services their shortages, surpluses, problems and best practices come under the purview of C4ISN, which launched in spring 2003. Established a year ago, ICDRiA studies risk management as it relates to large-investment industrial projects that involve new technologies, applications and markets. Dr. Bensoussan is ICDRiA's director, and Dr. Sethi is C4ISN's director. Dr. Bensoussan says the mathematically based study will investigate both quantitative and qualitative uncertainties in inventories. The fact that this grant was awarded to us through the Division of Mathematical Sciences of the National Science Foundation is a reflection of the strength of the UTD School of Management faculty in applied mathematics, especially as it relates to matters of business and industry, Dr. Bensoussan says. School of Management Dean Hasan Pirkul, Ph.D., says the school's research centers, such as ICDRiA and C4ISN, provide real value to industry by carrying out projects relevant to industry's needs. The findings of such investigations have real potential that could impact every step that a business goes through related to its products, Dr. Pirkul says. Peers Honor Professor Sethi Suresh Sethi, Ph.D., Ashbel Smith Professor of Operations Management at The University of Texas at Dallas, has been recognized by his peers in several venues in the past six months, most notably with a rare occurrence in scientific circles, a conference to celebrate his 60th birthday and honor him. More than 40 people attended the conference in June in Aix en Provence, France. Several were former post-doctoral fellows and co-authors of Dr. Sethi's. In conjunction with the conference, a book, Optimal Control and Dynamic Games: Applications in Finance, Management Science and Economics, was edited in Dr. Sethi's honor by Richard F. Hartl and Christophe Deissenberg. During the event, the editors presented Dr. Sethi with the first copy of the book, which includes a number of the papers presented at the conference. Dr. Sethi has also published two books during the last several months. He published Average-Cost Control of Stochastic Manufacturing Systems with co-authors Hanqin Zhang, Ph.D., and Qing Zhang, Ph.D., and Inventory and Supply Chain Management with Forecast Updates, with Houmin Yan, Ph.D., and Dr. Hanqin Zhang. The 324-page Average-Cost Control of Stochastic Manufacturing Systems is interdisciplinary in nature and sets forth a new theory showing that hierarchical decision making can result in near optimization of system goals. The 310-page Inventory and Supply Chain Management with Forecast Updates focuses on the issues of inventory decision making with information that is updated over time. Also last summer, Decision Sciences, a journal of the Decision Sciences Institute, posted, as one of its lead stories for the journal's online homepage, an article Dr. Sethi co-wrote with Drs. Yan and Zhang. That report, Quantity Flexibility Contracts: Optimal Decisions With Information Updates, is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/deci. It first appeared last year in the journal, which publishes research about decision making within the boundaries of an organization, as well as decisions involving inter-firm coordination. Dr. Sethi says the report focuses on studies of single and multi-period quantity flexibility contracts involving one demand forecast update in each period and a spot market. Dr. Sethi, who received his Ph.D. in operations research from Carnegie Mellon University, came to The University of Texas at Dallas School of Management in 1997 from the University of Toronto, where he was a faculty member for more than 20 years. Dr. Sethi has been recognized by his peers many times, including earlier this year when he was named a fellow by the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS). He was named a fellow in 2003 by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS); and fellow in 2003 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is also a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences and of the Canadian Academy of the Sciences and Humanities. International Journal Publishes Study by Dr. Enthoven of Accounting in Former Soviet Union The International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, a global scholarly publication based in the United Kingdom, in May published the most recent study on accounting changes in countries of the former Soviet Union by School of Management accounting professor Adolf J.H. Enthoven, Ph.D. In An International Accounting and Auditing Programme and Certification in the Russian Language, Dr. Enthoven, long an activist scholar in favor of worldwide uniform accounting principles and director of SOM's Center for International Accounting Development, not only reported on accounting practitioners in Russia but also made recommendations on instituting internationally accepted accounting standards to encourage foreign investment and the growth of a free market economy in former Soviet countries. The study reports that there are now more than 3,300 certified accounting practitioners in Russia and its former republics. To date, according to the study, 34 accountants have earned the Certified International Professional Accountant (CIPA) designation, which is comparable to being a certified public accountant in the United States. The results [of the examination program to date] have been very encouraging, the study reports, noting that the CIPA exams were first given in Russia and its former republics in May 2002. Between then and June 2004, some 35,000 accountants took one or more of the eight individual exams that make up the CIPA program. One aim of the CIPA program, the study says, is to substantially raise the quality of accounting and its profession in a number of countries of the former Soviet Union through the promotion of international accounting standards, international financial reporting standards, international standards of audit and professional ethics. To ensure the program's future success, the study recommends such measures as updating existing training manuals and translating them into Russian, reviewing examination preparation materials with instructors and apprising them on how to prepare their students to sit for the exams. Dr. Enthoven has worked as a U.S. State Department-sponsored consultant with the Russian government since 1990. Working together with the U. S. Treasury, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Russian Ministry of Taxation, he developed and administered the computer-based training the trainers program for Russian tax inspectors. A longtime consultant to the United Nations and the World Bank, Dr. Enthoven also has organized and led courses in Russia, the Baltic countries, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Moldova that have trained more than 1,000 accountants in the basics of international accounting principles. SOM Hosts Displaced Tulane Professor The School of Management (SOM) is playing host for the fall 2005 semester to Dr. Jun Zhang (right), assistant professor of information and operations management at the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Zhang was displaced by the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina, which resulted in Tulane being closed for the fall semester. Pictured with Dr. Zhang is SOM's Ashbel Smith Professor of Operations Management Suresh Sethi, Ph.D., who is a fellow scholar with Dr. Zhang in the field of supply chain management and a fellow alumni of his from Carnegie Mellon University. Mark Salamasick Named IIA Educator of the Year University of Texas at Dallas School of Management faculty member Mark Salamasick has been named 2005 Leon R. Radde Educator of the Year by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA). The award is presented each year to an individual who has made significant contributions to the advancement of internal auditing through education in colleges and universities. Mr. Salamasick created the school's Endorsed Internal Audit Program, which is among the fastest-growing internal audit programs in the United States, and founded an IIA student chapter at UTD. The chapter, started in 2003, boasts an enrollment of more than 70 members. Mr. Salamasick has written several books, articles and reports and has served on a research project conducted by the IIA Research Foundation (IIARF) focusing on information technology auditing. He also delivers presentations to audit professionals both in the United States and abroad and has been consulting in Japan, Australia, England, Canada and the Netherlands to help develop programs like UTD's in those countries. The UTD School of Management internal audit program is among 43 such programs at universities worldwide that the IIA has endorsed. The endorsement provides internship and research opportunities as well as an advanced internal audit curriculum. Receiving such recognition is both an honor and an indicator of the strength of the Endorsed Internal Audit program Mark Salamasick has established here at the UTD School of Management, School of Management Dean Hasan Pirkul, Ph.D., says. Individuals like Mark Salamasick are ensuring the future success of our profession by helping ensure that tomorrow's practitioners have the knowledge and skill they need to become valuable resources for the community, IIA President Dave Richards says. His dedication is commendable, and his contribution is invaluable. Established in 1941, the IIA has more than 100,000 members worldwide and serves as the internal audit profession's global voice, recognized authority, acknowledged leader, principal educator and chief advocate.