2009 Headlines
Class of 2009 Selects Vishal Gaur for Core Faculty Award
Inaugural award honors teaching excellence during the MBA Core Curriculum
February 4, 2009 | Ithaca, NY | The Johnson School's MBA Class of 2009 is pleased to honor Vishal Gaur, Associate Professor of Operations Management, with the first annual Core Faculty Award. The award is voted on by second year MBA students and recognizes an outstanding faculty member who teaches during the MBA Core, the collection of classes that all two-year residential students must complete during the first year in the program.
The idea for the award came out of a Student Council initiative to better connect students and faculty. It honors teaching excellence and the professor who best fosters learning through lecture, discussion, and coursework. The Core Faculty Award augments the Johnson Schools existing faculty awards including the Apple Award for Teaching Excellence, which tends to go to faculty teaching electives, and the Russell Distinguished Teaching Award, which is voted on by alumni at their fifth reunion.
According to the award submissions by students, Professor Gaur was chosen for making the Core Operations Management course "fun, engaging, and relevant," as well as for his ability to encourage student participation, listen to student response and feedback, and for developing a "challenging and stimulating course."
Professor Gaur joined the Johnson School in 2007, having previously taught at NYU Stern School of Business and the Harvard Business School. His research interests lie in retail operations and supply chain management, including topics such as inventory management, product variety, distribution logistics, financial performance of firms, and linking operational performance to financial performance. He was awarded the Wickham Skinner Early Career Research Accomplishments Award by Production and Operations Management Society in 2006, and received honorable mention for the George B. Dantzig Dissertation Award in 2001. His paper "Hedging Inventory Risk Through Market Instruments" (co-authored with Professor Sridhar Seshadri, University of Texas Austin), published in M&SOM received the 2008 M&SOM Best Paper Award. He serves as an associate editor for Management Science, M&SOM, and POMS.
