PhD Program Newsletter
Message from our Director
Dear Colleagues, PhD Students and Alumni,
I am delighted to share this issue of our PhD program newsletter, which showcases the remarkable accomplishments of our community. This edition highlights the continued success of our alumni, who are making significant contributions across academia and industry, as well as the impressive achievements of our current students. From publications in top-tier journals to presentations at premier conferences, along with prestigious awards and fellowships, our doctoral scholars continue to advance knowledge in their respective fields and exemplify the rigor and innovation that define our program. We are proud of each of you. Your work, your ideas and your perseverance continue to inspire us and contribute meaningful to the world. The challenges we face today are real, but so is the power of our collective support and shared purpose. I invite you to explore these stories and join me in celebrating the excellence that makes our PhD community truly exceptional.
In this issue, you'll also get a glimpse of the cutting-edge research our students are pursuing—from examining U.S. monetary policy's impact on emerging markets to exploring AI's role in equitable management, from analyzing the spillover effects of obstetric unit closures on hospital performance to investigating conflict dynamics in organizational settings. The breadth and depth of this work reflect the intellectual curiosity and scholarly excellence that drive our program forward.
Warm regards,
Michelle Duffy
Explore this issue:
- Jonathan Nam, WOrg, PhD 2016, was promoted to Associate Professor at Hong Kong Polytech University
- Wen Chen, WOrg, PhD 2015 was promoted to Associate Professor at City University of Hong Kong
- Jacob Ott, Accounting, PhD 2021 Assistant Professor at Purdue had his dissertation paper titled "The Regulatory Spillover Effects of Classifying Municipal Bonds as High-Quality Liquid Assets" published in The Accounting Review
- Narae Lee, SME, PhD 2022, won the STR Division's Robert J. Litshert Award at AOM
- Best proposal with practical implications (SMS)
- Corporate Citizenship Research Award (POSCO)
- Vincent Yu, SCO, PhD 2021, started as an assistant professor at Miami University (August 2023)
- Ellie Stillwell, WOrg, PhD 2021, moved from Visiting Assistant Professor at Northeastern University to Assistant Professor at the London School of Economics.
- Haram Seo, SME, PhD 2021, 2022, Distinguished Paper Award from the STR division of the Academy of Management.
- Keith Pennington, SME, PhD 2021, Started as an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut in the Management and Entrepreneurship department.
- Bori Csillag, WOrg, PhD 2021, was awarded the Stirek Assistant Professor of Management Professorship at Oregon State University (2023).
- Miguel Velasco Lopez, IDSc, PhD 2020, Promotion to Assistant Professor in the Quantitative Methods Department.
- Presented a paper coauthored will Paul Johnson (emeritus at Carlson School of Management) called "Gaming rules in liminal settings leading to corruption: evidence from an experimental approach" at the Society for Business Ethics Conference in Seattle (August 2022)
- Elected a member of the Junior Scholar Network Organizing Committee at the Society for Business Ethics (October 2022).
- Tianna Barnes, WOrg, PhD 2020, has completed her postdoc at Whatton and will be starting as an Assistant Professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College
- Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management Diversity and Inclusion Initiative 2021.
- Academy of Management Gender & Diversity in Organizations Division Outstanding Reviewer 2021.
- Maria Rodas, Mktg, PhD 2019, was named an MSI Young Scholar. Selections were made on the basis of productivity in a set of top journals, citation impact of work since the PhD, article awards, relevancy of work to MSI Research Priorities, and editorial board leadership.
- Sehwon Kang, SCO, PhD 2019, was awarded the Chris Voss Best Paper Award: Runner Up at EurOMA 2022, for the paper: "Labour issues at supplier factories in developing countries: Drivers and remediation of civil and collective violations".
- Probal Mojumder, IDSc, PhD 2018, Since Feb 2021, Assistant Professor and Young Faculty Research Chair at Indian Institute of Management Udaipur, India
- In September 2022, Probal's paper "So, Who Likes You? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment" co-authored with Professors Ravi Bapna, Edward McFowland III, Jui Ramaprasad, and Akhmed Umyarov, got accepted for publication at Management Science journal
- Rick Hardcopf, SCO, PhD 2018, is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University.
- Rick is currently finishing his 5th year and hopes to put his tenure packet together this coming Summer. Rick has 4 publications to date, with 2 more in review and 2 additional papers almost ready
- Cameron Miller, SME, PhD 2017, was a Wiley Blackwell Best Dissertation Award Finalist, Strategic Management Division, AOM, 2018:
- Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.
- Wiley Top Cited Article for 2020-2021
- Best Proposal Award for Rigor in Research Finalist. Competitive Strategy Interest Group, Strategic Management Society Meeting 2021
- Edward Pettinella Professorship in Business, Whitman School of Management, 2020 – 2022
- Best Reviewer, Strategic Management Journal, 2022
- Extraordinary Service to the Editorial Board, Organization Science, 2020 – 2021
- Best Reviewer, Strategic Management Journal, 2019 – 2020
- Best Reviewer, Academy of Management Perspectives, 2020
- Outstanding Reviewer, Academy of Management Perspectives, 2019
- Distinguished Paper Award, Strategic Management Division, AOM, 2018;
- Outstanding Reviewer, Journal of Banking and Finance, 2018;
- Best Reviewer, Knowledge, and Innovation Group, Strategic Management Society, 2018
- Karyn Dossinger, WOrg, PhD 2016, Started her new job in August 2022 as Assistant Professor of Management at Loyola University Chicago Quinlan School of Business. In addition, starting 2023-2024, Karyn will take on a new role as Associate Program Director, MS in Human Resources.
- Yeonka (Sophia) Kim, WOrg, PhD 2016, Promotion to Associate Professor and tenured at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, recently started a new job as an Assistant Professor at San Francisco State University.
- Florence Honore, SME, PhD 2015, Schulze 2021 Publication Award for Your Startup Team: "Why Both Shared and Diverse Experiences Matter." EIX March 2021.
- Patricia Dahm, WOrg, PhD 2015, received the Best Paper Award, Organizational Behavior Division, Academy of Management in 2019.
- Sumi Jung, Acct, PhD 2015, Publication in the Accounting Review in 2022 with Minnesota Alumni Wen Chen, Xiaoxia Peng, and Ivy Zhang (former faculty member).
- Nelson Amaral, Mktg, PhD 2013, recently joined the faculty at Ontario Tech University as an Assistant Professor.
- Georg Meyer, IDSc, PhD 2012, is employed at Bossard Group as their Cheif Information Officer
- Jinjing Zhang, IDSc, PhD 2012, was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure at Indiana University in 2019.
- Named to Poets&Quants’ Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors for 2018.
- Adam Fremeth, SME, PhD 2009, was named the E. J. Kernaghan Chair in Energy Policy at the Ivey Business School, Western University, in 2018.
- Fulbright Scholar for 2018-19
- Pallab Sanyal, IDSc, PhD 2009, was recently named the Director of MBA Programs at George Mason University.
- Amit Kramer, WOrg, PhD 2009, has been named Associate Editor of the Journal of Vocational Behavior.
- Zhen Zhang, WOrg PhD 2008, has been named Editor-in-Chief of Personnel Psychology for 2023-2025.
- Ajay Kumar, IDSc, PhD 2007, was appointed Defense Secretary of India in 2019.
- Ashwani Monga, Mktg, PhD 2004, has been named Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor of Rutgers University.
- Alina Chircu, IDSc, PhD 2001, was named dean of UNM’s Anderson School of Management in 2024.
- Amy Cox, Mktg, PhD 2001, was recently named the Chair of the Economics, Accounting, and Business Department at Converse College.
- Gregory Heim, SCO, PhD 2000, was promoted to full Professor in the Department of Information & Operations Management, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University.
- Haresh Sapra, Acct, PhD 2000, was awarded the Hillel J. Einhorn Teaching Excellence Award in the Executive MBA program at Booth.
- serving as senior co-editor of the Journal of Accounting Research
Alumni Highlights
We would love to hear from our alumni!
If you have recently been promoted, received honors or awards, or have other news, please
Brandy ('23) has joined the College of Business at Prairie View A&M as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Human Resources Management.
Congratulations Brandy!
Wenwei ('24) received the Notable Contribution to Accounting Literature Award from the American Accounting Association for his research entitled "Is There a Confidential Interval for That? A Critical Examination of Null Outcome Reporting in Accounting Research".
Congratulations Wenwei!
Current Student Highlights
From major research awards to leadership roles and prestigious fellowships, our current PhD students continue to inspire. See how they're shaping the future of business scholarship.
Graduate School Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship Winner!
Jianxuan Lei from the Work and Organizations Department competed with 190 Doctoral Dissertation applicants and won the Graduate School Doctoral Dissertation Award. Congratulations Jianxuan!
Wenwei Lin
Accounting
Wenwei Lin, an Accounting PhD student, had a paper published: Paper "Fractional Trading" published in The Review of Financial Studies.
Chaofan Zhai
IDSC
Chaofan Zhai, an IDSc PhD student, was awarded the Best Dissertation Award at the Workshop on Information Technology and Systems (WITS) 2024.
Yasaman Asayesh
SCO
Yasaman Asayesh, a SCO PhD student, was awarded Best Paper Award in the Operations and Supply Chain Management division of the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management for the paper titled “Health Insurance and Labor Productivity: Evidence from US Manufacturing” (2024).
Yunhyoung Kim
Marketing
Yunhyoung Kim, a Marketing PhD student, was published with Haitao (Tony) Cui and Yi Zhu (2025), "Behavior-Based Pricing under Informed Privacy Consent: Unraveling Autonomy Paradox," Marketing Science, Articles in Advance.
Current Student Awards
Carlson 2025-26 Doctoral Dissertation Award Winners
- Bryan Guierrez - Finance Department
- Sojung Yoon - Information Decisions Sciences Department
- Yasaman Asayesh - Supply Chain and Operations Department
- Yicheng Wang - Finance Department
- Seola Kim - Work and Organizations Department
Congratulations to our DDF Winners!
Papers & Publications by Concentration
Research Corner
"Global Regulations and Bank Capital Flows"
My research centers on financial intermediation and international finance, with a particular emphasis on banks. My dissertation examines how financial intermediaries operate across borders and how policy shapes the flow of credit. I combine hand-collected and proprietary datasets with modern econometric identification to uncover mechanisms and quantify effects. As part of my Ph.D. journey, I have presented independent and joint work in conferences hosted by the American Financial Association, Dallas Fed, and Office of Financial Research.
"Spillover Effects of Obstetric Unit Closures on cost Performance at Proximal Hospitals"
This paper examines the impact of hospital unit closures on the cost performance of nearby hospitals. While conventional wisdom suggests that such closures primarily reduce healthcare access, a less explored aspect is their effect on the cost efficiency of surrounding hospitals. When patients shift to these facilities, volumes may increase, yet the implications of such changes for cost performance remain understudied. Using inpatient claims data from New York hospitals (2014–2019), we apply a staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) approach to analyze whether and how the closure of an obstetric unit influences the cost per patient day in obstetric units at nearby hospitals. Our findings show that closures lead to an average increase of 10.3% in the cost per patient day in nearby facilities.
Building on these results, we are investigating the mechanisms driving the increased costs and their potential implications for patient care quality across the continuum of care. We are also exploring whether care utilization patterns differ between underserved and overserved communities, and identifying possible operational levers to mitigate negative effects.
On the Job Market
For 2025-26, we have 11 job market candidates representing all seven departments. We look forward to seeing them all successfully settled for Fall 2025.
| Department | Candidates |
|---|---|
| Accounting | Johnny Yoon (advisor: Haiwen Zhang) |
| Finance | Haolin Wu (advisor: Richard Thakor) Jing Gao (advisor: Xiaoji Lin) |
| Information & Decision Sciences | Choafan Zhai (advisor: Ravi Bapna) |
| Marketing | Sangmin Kim (advisor: William Hedgcock) Seulmin Yang (advisor: John George) |
| Supply Chain & Operations | Yasaman Asayesh (advisor: Susan Goldstein) |
| Strategic Management & Entrepreneurship | Usha Ramanathan (advisor: Akbar Zaheer) |
| Work & Organizations | Adrianto Andrianto (advisor: Avner Ben-Ner) Accepted position at the Indonesian Ministry of Finance Marco Jang (advisor: Avner Ben-Ner) Jianxuan Lei (advisor: John Buss) |