At the close of each academic year, three UCLA Anderson faculty members are recognized by the Teaching Improvement Committee for their excellence in teaching, research, leadership and mentorship.
Please join us in congratulating these faculty members for their accomplishments and receiving the following faculty teaching awards:
Assistant Professor Ian Larkin will receive the Dean George W. Robbins Assistant Professor Teaching Award. Professor Larkin has compiled a terrific teaching record during his short time at Anderson. Teaching both full-time MBAs and FEMBAs, in both standard and flex formats, he has consistently received some of the highest teaching ratings in the school. He is a master of keeping students engaged with rigor, and students are very generous in their praise about how much they learned in his classes.
Professor of Marketing and Psychology Danny Oppenheimer will receive the Citibank Teaching Award. Professor Oppenheimer teaches the core MBA course in marketing management and undergraduate introductory psychology at UCLA. He receives outstanding evaluations from his students and is particularly lauded for his teaching style, care for students, world-class expertise and professionalism. Recently, Professor Oppenheimer was also recognized by Poets & Quants as one of its Best 40 Under 40 Business School Professors.
Professor Bruce Carlin will be honored with the Neidorf “Decade” Teaching Award. Professor Carlin has built up a legendary reputation for the quality of his teaching during his time at Anderson, and for good reason. He has taught the finance core for non-finance-track students — and has unfailingly received among the highest teaching ratings in the school. Teaching FEMBAs and full-time MBAs in both flex and standard formats, he has never received a median instructor rating of less than a perfect 5 out of 5. According to his students, he has a gift for making complex concepts clear, and for creating a classroom conducive to collaborative conversation.
The Research Committee announces that Assistant Professor of Economics Paola Giuliano is the recipient of the Eric and “E” Juline Faculty Excellence in Research Award. Professor Giuliano is a leader in the field of cultural economics. In particular, she has studied the economic impact of historical events, such as the invention of the plow, on both fertility and women’s roles today. Giuliano’s work is marked by originality, depth and analytical rigor and methodological versatility. Her widely cited research tackles socially relevant questions, such as the historical roots of gender inequality, the cultural origins of family living arrangements, and the effect of growing up in a recession on beliefs and preferences.
The La Force Award Committee has selected Sushil Bikhchandani as this year’s recipient of the La Force Award. Professor Bikhchandani’s service to the Anderson School is exemplary and spans more than 27 years. To highlight a small part of his work on behalf of the school, he has served twice as chair of his area (1993-1996 and 2005-2008), twice as vice chair for the Anderson School (1997-1998 and 2012-2015) and once as director of the Ph.D. program (1999-2003). Valued for his intellectual breadth, integrity and discretion, as well as his incisive thinking, he served on the Compensation Taskforce (2011) and the Gender Equity Committee (2005-2006). He has served twice on the school’s Staffing Committee (1999-2001 and 2009-2011). His influence has been felt and appreciated widely across the school.
The Doctoral Program has selected Professor Brett Trueman as winner of the 2015 Dean’s Prize for Outstanding Faculty Mentorship of Ph.D. Students. Professor Trueman is being honored for mentoring Ph.D. students and for the outstanding record of placement among students on whose committees he has chaired or served as a member. Recent placements of his Ph.D. students include tenure-track positions at UC Berkeley, Yale, Northwestern and Southern Methodist University. Over the course of his time at UCLA Anderson, he has also served on numerous doctoral committees.
In memory of our colleague and friend Professor Xavier Drèze, an annual award has been established to honor a UCLA Anderson Ph.D. student for the most outstanding research paper. The Xavier Drèze Prize for 2015 goes to graduating Ph.D. student Vanessa Burbano, who will join Columbia University’s strategy department this fall. Vanessa’s paper “Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Performance: Field Experimental Evidence on the Role of Employee Salary Requirements and Productivity” focuses on an internal stakeholder — the employee. Using three randomized field experiments implemented in online labor marketplaces, she provides causal evidence of the effect of CSR on employee outcomes that have been shown to be critical to firm performance: salary requirements and employee performance. Her dissertation co-chairs were Professors Marvin Lieberman and Jason Snyder.
Dean Judy Olian and Faculty Chairman Randolph Bucklin will present the awards at an awards celebration today, June 3, in the faculty lounge.
Pictured top to bottom: Ian Larkin, Danny Oppenheimer, Bruce Carlin, Paola Giuliano, Sushil Bikhchandani, Brett Trueman, Vanessa Burbano.
