2004 Headlines
Johnson School Professor Mark Nelson Wins Two National AwardsAmerican Accounting Association Awards Top Prizes to Noted Researcher July 14, 2004, Ithaca, New York The Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University is pleased to announce that Professor Mark Nelson, PhD, has been named recipient of the American Accounting Association's 2004 Notable Contributions to Accounting Literature Award and the 2004 Wildman Medal Award. Nelson is the Eleanora and George Landew Professor of Management, and Professor of Accounting. Both awards acknowledge contributions of a paper entitled "Evidence from Auditors About Managers' and Auditors' Earnings-Management Decisions," coauthored with Robin Tarplay and John Elliott while those professors were also at the Johnson School. The research examines 515 examples of aggressive accounting encountered by practicing auditors, and identifies factors that determine when and how management attempts aggressive accounting and whether auditors require that aggressive accounting be corrected. "Mark Nelson is one of the most outstanding professors and researchers in the accounting field," said Johnson School Dean Robert Swieringa. "He consistently earns high praise from students and faculty alike and is a fine example of the exceptional professors we have here at the Johnson School. The entire Johnson School community extends its heartfelt congratulations to a very deserving individual." The 2004 Notable Contributions to Accounting Literature Award recognizes research of exceptional merit published in the five calendar years preceding the award. Criteria for the award include potential interest; originality; clarity; soundness of methodology; and contribution to knowledge. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants funds this highly competitive award and Professor Nelson is the fourth member of the Johnson School's current accounting faculty to receive this award. Professor Thomas Dyckman received the award in 1966 and 1978; Professor Robert Libby received the award in 1985 and 1996; and Professor Charles M.C. Lee received the award in 2003. The award carries a cash prize of $2500 and a plaque. The Wildman Medal Award is named for Deloitte partner and NYU professor John R. Wildman. It focuses on "significance of contribution to the advancement of the public practice of accountancy" and "encourages research relevant to the professional practice of accounting." Deloitte funds this award, which carries a cash prize of $5000 and a medal. "It is very gratifying to receive both of these awards in the same year." said Nelson. "I'm particularly pleased that one award focuses on contribution to the research literature, while the other focuses on contribution to practice. Both of these awards relate to the same research, suggesting that we are successfully bridging practice and theory." Professor Nelson's current research examines psychological and economic factors that influence how people interpret and apply accounting, auditing, and tax regulations and trade in financial markets. Some recent studies have examined the methods by which firms manage their earnings and the effectiveness of the audit function in preventing earnings management. Other recent studies examine how investors' psychological biases lead to predictable security mispricing. Professor Nelson's research has been published in such scholarly journals as the Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, Accounting Organizations and Society, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. His work has been reported by the New York Times, CFO Magazine, CNBC, CFO.Com, and numerous other outlets in the business press. He also has received a KPMG Peat Marwick Research Fellowship and Faculty Fellowship, two KPMG Peat Marwick Research Opportunities in Auditing Awards, a Whitcomb Fellowship and an Arthur Andersen Dissertation Fellowship. Professor Nelson has won the Johnson School's Stephen Russell Distinguished Teaching Award, and twice has won the Johnson School's Apple Award for Teaching Excellence, as well as Ohio State University's Coopers & Lybrand Teaching Award. Professor Nelson serves on the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, a group of CEOs, CFOs, senior partners of public accounting firms, and senior members of the academic and analyst communities who advise the Financial Accounting Standards Board. He recently completed a second term as Associate Editor of the Accounting Review, will start serving as an Editor of the Accounting Review in 2005, and currently is a member of the editorial boards of the Accounting Review, Accounting Horizons and Accounting, Organizations and Society. His biography and vita can be found at http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/faculty/profiles/Nelson/. The Johnson School at Cornell University, founded in 1946, is Cornell's graduate school of management. The Johnson School combines leading edge intellectual capital with "real time, real world" business practice and is among the top business schools in the world. Opportunities for experiential learning, such as immersion programs and student-run venture capital and mutual funds, distinguish the Johnson School's curricula. Programs include MBA and doctoral degrees, a twelve-month MBA option for students with advanced degrees in science or engineering and an executive MBA. The Johnson School is located at the center of Cornell University-the largest of the Ivy League schools and one of the world's top research institutions. For more about the Johnson School please visit: www.johnson.cornell.edu. For More Information |
