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2001 Honors: College of Commerce and Business Administration

Excellence-in-Teaching Awards
Two faculty members and two teaching asssistants are honored by the Commerce Alumni Association for excellence in teaching.
Excellence-in-Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching
Werner Baer, professor of economics, was honored for his teaching. "Most young people are intellectually insecure, as they face a complex world and a teaching staff which has greater knowledge and experience than they have," wrote Baer. "... It is the task of the teacher to make the student intellectually self-confident in a humble way."
Excellence-in-Teaching Award for Graduate Teaching
Brian Wansink, professor of business administration, who teaches courses in marketing and runs the UI Food & Brands Lab, was honored for graduate teaching. His teaching innovations include development of an interactive CD case study about a Farmer City radio station and a Web site about consumer behavior.
Excellence-in-Teaching Award for Graduate Assistants
Kareen Brown, a graduate student in the PhD program in accountancy, also was honored for excellence in teaching.
Excellence-in-Teaching Award for Teaching Assistants
Fourth-year doctoral student in accountancy Joshua Herbod also was honored for excellence in teaching.

Executive and Professional Development Award
Morgan Lynge, professor of finance and chair of the department, has been recognized with this award for his many contributions to the programs of the Commerce Executive Development Center. He also has participated in the Illinois League of Financial Institutions Career Development School and has cooperated with the director of the Specialized Program for International Managers in selecting advisers for students in the program.

CBA Outstanding Staff Award
The late Patricia Healea, recruiting coordinator for Commerce Career Services, was named the recipient of the Outstanding Staff Award two weeks before she died. She was a dedicated professional and team player, who had an exceptionally positive attitude toward her work, a willingness to readily adapt to changing ways of doing business, and a take-charge attitude that helped the office function smoothly and successfully.

Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award
Andrew Helms, a sixth-year doctoral student in economics, who has taught undergraduate courses in macro- and microeconomics and statics, was recognized with the college's Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award.
Ngamboko P. Muzinga - known to his students as Lawrence - has made contributions as a teaching assistant that are so noteworthy, that the department of finance nominated him as a student outside the college for this award. So as a doctoral student in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, Muzinga receives this teaching award.

CBA Academic Professional Award
Larry Johnson, assistant dean for undergraduate affairs, received the Academic Professional Award. According to interim dean Frederick Neumann, "He has provided outstanding service to the undergraduates in this college for over 20 years as a quiet, efficient, and conscientious adviser and administrator."

CBA College Research Awards
The College Research Policy Committee reviews nominations for these two awards that honor one junior and one senior faculty member.

Narasimhan Jegadeesh, Harry A. Brandt Distinguished Professor in Financial Markets and Options, was honored with the Senior Faculty Excellence in Research Award. His research contributions are primarily in the areas of capital market efficiency and empirical asset pricing, and he also works in the areas of fixed-income markets and information economics. To date, his most prominent scholarly impact has been his contribution to evidence questioning the widely held view that financial markets are efficient.

Stephen Parente, professor of economics, received the Junior Faculty Excellence in Research Award. Parente's teaching and research specialties are in the areas of macroeconomics and growth and development. He was among the first macroeconomists to argue that technology adoption rather than invention contributes to the explanation of international patterns of growth and development and his work already has had a major impact on the way we think about factors that influence the wealth of nations.