Johnson’s 2020 faculty awardees recognized for outstanding teaching and research

Students, alumni, and fellow colleagues present year-end awards

June 23, 2020 By: Janice Endresen

Johnson is proud to announce the 2020 faculty awards for outstanding teaching, a faculty award for research excellence, four research fellowships, and the Mountain Mover Staff Award.

Outstanding teaching awards

In their nominating remarks for each honoree, this year’s graduating students expressed appreciation for professors’ commitment to students and their dedication to making their course material accessible, engaging, and relevant—even after the switch to virtual learning in April.

Stephen Russell Distinguished Teaching Award

Vishal Gaur, Emerson Professor of Manufacturing Management, and professor of operations, technology, and information management

Stephen Russell ’60, MBA ’61, established this award, which is given to a Johnson faculty member whose teaching continues to influence graduates five years post-graduation.

“As an educator, there’s no better reward than knowing you’ve made a long-lasting difference, and I could not be more pleased to have Vishal’s service recognized in this way,” said Dean Mark Nelson. This year, the Class of 2015 honored Vishal Gaur and presented the award to him at Johnson’s 2020 virtual Reunion.

Class of 1992 Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching

Ryan Guggenmos, assistant professor of accounting

Voted on by graduating Ithaca residential MBA students, this award honors a faculty member whom they believe demonstrates the qualities of outstanding leadership and enduring educational influence.

Here are just a few of the glowing remarks from students who nominated Ryan Guggenmos for this award:

“It is clear that Professor Guggenmos really cares about his students and I will miss his humor, teaching, and storytelling.”
“He is hilarious. He is firm and fair. He goes to incredible lengths to make sure that what we learn in class can be applied to our internships/full-time roles.”
“From thinking through ethical issues to navigating internal team dynamics, he was able to provide frameworks and tools to distill what is at the crux of the problems we are likely to face in the workforce, and how we could consider resolving them.”

Ryan Guggenmos portrait — Ryan Guggenmos

Executive MBA Americas Star Award

Risa Mish, professor of practice of management

This award recognizes exceptional performance that made the most significant contribution to the student learning experience.

Risa Mish teaches core courses in critical and strategic thinking and leadership, has received multiple awards for her teaching excellence.

Executive MBA Metro NY Globe Award

David Juran, senior lecturer of operations, technology, and information management

The Executive MBA Metro NY Globe Award for teaching excellence acknowledges and honors a faculty member for their enthusiasm, involvement, and commitment to students.

David Juran, who teaches advanced spreadsheet modeling, decision models, and managerial statistics, was honored with this award in 2002, 2006, and 2011, and has also received other awards for teaching excellence.

Executive MBA/MS in Healthcare Leadership Faculty Award

Steve Carvell, professor of finance, School of Hotel Administration

The Healthcare Leadership Faculty Award for teaching excellence recognizes and honors a faculty member for their enthusiasm, involvement, and rapport with the graduating cohort.

Steve Carvell, who teaches managerial finance and mergers and acquisitions in the School of Hotel Administration, is also the academic director of the Center for Real Estate and Finance and was appointed Cornell’s first vice provost for external education strategy in 2019.

Core Faculty Award: One-Year Accelerated MBA

Risa Mish, professor of practice of management
Luo Zuo, associate professor of accounting

Voted on by One-Year Ithaca MBA students, this award recognizes an outstanding faculty member who teaches during the core.

This year, Risa Mish and Luo Zuo were both recipients of the Core Faculty Award. Zuo, who teaches financial accounting, was also recognized for teaching excellence by Cornell-Tsinghua Finance MBAs two years in a row.

Core Faculty Award: Two-Year MBA

William Schmidt, assistant professor of operations, technology and information management
Voted on by Two-Year Ithaca MBA students, this award recognizes an outstanding faculty member who teaches during the core.
William Schmidt, who teaches data analytics and modeling, was honored with this award twice before (2016, 2018) and also received the Apple Award for teaching excellence in 2018.

William Schmidt portrait — William Schmidt

Gravitas Award, Cornell-Tsinghua Finance MBA

Ya-Ru Chen, Nicholas H. Noyes Professor of Management
Voted on by Cornell-Tsinghua Finance MBA graduating students, this award recognizes a faculty member who is charismatic, commands great attention, and provides highly engaged learning in the classroom.
Ya-Ru Chen, who is also the academic dean for China Initiatives, teaches global business study, negotiations, and organizational behavior. This marks the second year in a row that she was honored with this award, and she was also honor with the Star Professor Award in 2017 and 2018.

Star Professor Award, Cornell-Tsinghua Finance MBA

Ming Huang, professor of finance
Voted on by Cornell-Tsinghua Finance MBA graduating students, this award recognizes a faculty member who has given outstanding care and attention across all aspects of students’ lives and learning during the program.
Ming Huang teaches investment and behavioral finance.

Best Teaching Award, Cornell-Tsinghua Finance MBA

Luo Zuo, associate professor of accounting
Voted on by Cornell-Tsinghua Finance MBA graduating students, this award recognizes a faculty member whose teaching was the best in the classroom.
Zuo was honored with this award in 2017, the Gravitas Award in 2018, and the Star Professor Award in 2019.

Faculty research awards and fellowships

In addition to presenting Johnson’s annual faculty research award, Dean Mark Nelson and Stijn van Osselaer, associate dean for academic affairs, awarded four faculty fellowships to support research and teaching activities during the 2020-21 academic year.

Faculty Research Award

Karan Girotra, Charles H. Dyson Family Professor of Management
This award is recommended by a panel of distinguished faculty to recognize an outstanding researcher each year.

Clifford H. Whitcomb Faculty Fellowships

Shawn Mankad, assistant professor of operations, technology, and information management
Sanjeev Bhojraj, Alumni Professor in Asset Management and faculty advisor at the Parker Center for Investment Research
Clifford H. Whitcomb ’43, MBA ’48, who established the fellowships in 1993, was a retired president of Prudential Property and Casualty Insurance as well as a lifetime member of the Cornell University Council.

Shawn Mankad

Sanjeev Bhojraj portrait — Sanjeev Bhojraj

Half Century Faculty Research Fellowship

Yao Cui, assistant professor of operations, technology, and information management
Supported by an endowment from members of the Half Century Club, which includes alumni that graduated from Johnson at least fifty years ago, this fellowship is specifically dedicated to providing resources for the research of junior faculty.

Krause Faculty Fellowship in Real Estate

Warren Bailey, professor of finance
This fellowship is awarded to a Johnson faculty member who is very committed to real estate students and the overall success of the program.

Johnson’s Mountain Mover Staff Award

Jolly Shi, residential MBA events coordinator
The Mountain Mover Staff Award, voted on by Ithaca residential MBA students, is given to someone who continuously “moved mountains” in order to better serve the Johnson community.