School of Management recognizes students at annual PhD Showcase

By Matthew Biddle

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo School of Management honored many of its doctoral students at the fourth annual PhD Showcase and Celebration on April 9.

Woongsun Yoo of Seoul, Korea, accepted the Dean’s Award and a $2,500 prize to help support his dissertation. The award honors the senior doctoral student who has most demonstrated exceptional research performance and the highest potential as a scholar. Criteria for consideration includes journal publications, research awards, and presentations and papers at top conferences.

Yoo will earn his PhD in management with a finance concentration in June 2016.

Torsten Doering received the Rising Star award and a $1,000 prize to support future conference attendance. The award honors the first- or second-year doctoral student who has most exhibited exceptional early performance in the program through their engagement with faculty on research, coursework and contributions to the intellectual atmosphere of the school.

An operations management and strategy PhD student, Doering earned his Professional MBA from the UB School of Management in 2003 and is an assistant professor at Daemen College in Buffalo.

Seventeen PhD students across five disciplines presented posters highlighting their research accomplishments. Two students were selected as poster competition winners based on clarity of research, strength of research design and methodology, description and analysis of data and its implications, and overall presentation.

Anton Ivanov of St. Petersburg, Russia, and Victoria Kisekka of Palmyra, Pennsylvania, took top honors for their individual poster presentations and a $1,000 prize each to support future conference attendance. Both are students in the Management Science and Systems Department and explored health care-related topics for their research.

Ivanov displayed his project, “The Impact of Internet-Related Predictors on Prominence: An Empirical Study of U.S. Cancer Hospitals.” Kisekka showcased her research on organizational resilience in hospitals after extreme events.

Judges for the poster competition were William Kross, PhD, associate dean for research and professor of accounting and law in the UB School of Management, and Amanda Nickerson, PhD, associate professor in the UB Graduate School of Education and director of the Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention.

The keynote speaker was Naresh Malhotra, Regents’ Professor Emeritus in the Scheller College of Business and senior fellow at CIBER, both at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Malhotra earned his PhD from the UB School of Management in 1979.

The UB School of Management is recognized for its emphasis on real-world learning, community and economic impact, and the global perspective of its faculty, students and alumni. The school also has been ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek, the Financial Times, Forbes and U.S. News & World Report for the quality of its programs and the return on investment it provides its graduates. For more information about the UB School of Management, visit mgt.buffalo.edu.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, the largest and most comprehensive campus in the State University of New York. UB’s nearly 30,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.