Doctoral students, with some guidance from their dissertation advisors, push the frontiers of our disciplines in new directions through serious, intense, creative study and research that is captured and synthesized in their doctoral dissertations.
Successful ones receive their PhDs and become colleagues even though they may have new jobs continents away. Many become educators while others join industry, research labs, start companies, and contribute in other ways.
The intensity of the doctoral student life is well-known and sometimes even caricatured through such classic means as PhD Comics.
On May 1, at the Isenberg School of Management, several of our outstanding doctoral students were recognized and two out of the four are doctoral students in Management Science. They received their award certificates with a monetary award, as well, at a lunch party, complete with pizza!
Our PhD Director, Professor of Marketing Dr. George Milne, gave out the awards and, in an earlier message to our school, he had shared the names of the winners of this year’s Doctoral Student Outstanding Performance Awards and what a great group it is this year!
The Outstanding Doctoral Student Researcher Award goes to three students this year: Heng Chen, Rory Eckhardt, and Dong “Michelle” Li. Both Heng and Michelle are doctoral students in Management Science and Michelle is my doctoral student..She recently successfully defended her doctoral dissertation proposal. According to Dr. Milne, and I fully agree: This year has been a productive research year
among doctoral students, and the research bar has been raised by the
outstanding performance of these three scholars.
Heng Chen is a
third year student who has a
paper accepted (along with his advisor Professor Senay Solak) in
Production and Operation Management.
Rory Eckhardt is a fourth-year student in Strategic Management, who has published articles in the
Journal of Management and a Journal of Management Studies.
The JOM was a coauthored with doctoral student Ali Crocker. His JMS
was coauthored with Professor Bruce Skaggs. Dong “Michelle” Li is a fourth year student who has published four journal articles in the International Transactions in Operational Research, Netnomics, Computational Economics, and has a paper accepted in the journal Computational Management Science. I share co-authorship with Michelle and she is always willing to help out other students working with us at the Supernetwork Center.
The Outstanding Doctoral Student Teacher Award goes to
Ryan Spalding. Ryan is a fourth-year student in Sport Management
(graduating this week). He has been recognized by students, other
doctoral students, and faculty as a gifted teacher.
Also, on May 1, Michelle and Heng took part in our great UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter end of the semester dinner party, and helped tremendously with the logistics. Ryan joined us to celebrate and engaged in conversation and delicious international cuisines
Building community is essential to the success of the doctoral program and it is worth the effort!
Michelle is my third PhD student in Management Science to receive this award in the past 5-6 years. Great to see our area's research so recognized!
Most importantly, you must love what you do and that goes also for the research that you do!
Also, on May 1, Michelle and Heng took part in our great UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter end of the semester dinner party, and helped tremendously with the logistics. Ryan joined us to celebrate and engaged in conversation and delicious international cuisines
Building community is essential to the success of the doctoral program and it is worth the effort!
Michelle is my third PhD student in Management Science to receive this award in the past 5-6 years. Great to see our area's research so recognized!
Most importantly, you must love what you do and that goes also for the research that you do!
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