Roger Martin and Nancy Lang Awards for Excellence in Research and Teaching Awarded to Rotman Faculty
Toronto, January 19, 2009 -- Four faculty members at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management have been named the recipients of the 2008 Roger Martin and Nancy Lang Awards for Excellence in Research and Teaching. The Awards were established in 1999 by a generous donation to the Rotman School by Dean Roger Martin and his wife, Nancy Lang. Their purpose is to recognize and encourage excellence in the research and teaching activities of Rotman faculty members on an annual basis.
Sharing the award for research are Avi Goldfarb, an associate professor of marketing, and Olav Sorenson, who holds the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair in Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship and is also a professor of strategic management. Joan Kitunen, a senior lecturer in accounting, and John Oesch, an assistant professor of organizational behavior, are the co-recipients of the award for teaching.
Prof. Goldfarb received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2002 and his B.A.H from Queen’s University in 1997. Much of his research explores the impact of information technology on marketing, on universities, and on the economy. In addition, he has developed new techniques for measuring and understanding brand value. Prof. Goldfarb has published over 25 articles in a variety of outlets, including the American Economic Review, Marketing Science, Management Science, and the Journal of Marketing Research. He serves as a co-editor at the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy and as an associate editor of Information Economics and Policy.
Prof. Sorenson received his A.B from Harvard College. He then went on to receive M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from Stanford University. Prof. Sorenson’s primary line of research concerns economic geography -- why do firms in some industries cluster in a small number of regions, while in others they spread more broadly, and what are the implications of these locational patterns for firms, employees and society. He has also written extensively on the dynamics of competition, the role of social networks in markets, and the influence of basic science on technological innovation. In terms of industry focus, he has primarily studied venture capital firms and companies operating in the entertainment and high tech sectors. His research has been published in many leading academic journals and he currently serves as Department Editor of Management Science.
Joan Kitunen is a faculty member at the Rotman School and the University of Toronto at Mississauga. She designs, coordinates and teaches many of the taxation courses offered in the MBA and MMPA programs (Master of Management and Professional Accounting), and in the undergraduate Commerce programs at the University of Toronto. She has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards, the most recent being the Rotman Excellence in Teaching Award and the MMPA Teaching Award in 2008. Kitunen is the Co-Director of the ICAO/Rotman Centre for Innovation in Accounting Education; Coordinator of the taxation segment of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario School of Accountancy and the Academic representative on the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants Tax Courses Committee. She is the co-author of Canadian Income Taxation, Planning and Decision Making.
Prof. Oesch’s teaching interests are in the areas of negotiation, decision making, organizational behaviour, and emotions in management. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University, holds an M.Sc. From the University of British Columbia as well as four degrees from the University of Western Ontario. He has won numerous awards for his teaching in the Rotman School’s MBA, Executive MBA, Omnium Global Executive MBA and Executive Education programs. He has research interests in the areas of decision making, managerial negotiations, and organizational justice. His publication record includes the Journal of Business Venturing, Social Justice Research, Games and Economic Behavior, and Organization Science.
In addition, a record 90 instructors were honoured with Rotman Excellence in Teaching Awards for the 2007-2008 academic year. This Award is based on students’ evaluations of instructors’ performance in the Rotman School’s MBA, Master of Finance, Executive MBA, OMNIUM Global Executive MBA and Rotman Commerce programs. Students ranked instructors on a scale of 1 through 7. The criteria to receive this Award is to be rated 6.0 or higher.
The Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto is redesigning business education for the 21st century with a curriculum based on Integrative Thinking. Located in the world’s most diverse city, the Rotman School fosters a new way to think that enables the design of creative business solutions. The School is currently raising $200 million to ensure Canada has the world-class business school it deserves. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca. Ken McGuffin
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