News and Awards

Michael H. Rothkopf Graduate Scholarship is Established by Laura Rothkopf

Laura Rothkopf has established a Graduate Scholarship in memory of her late husband, Professor Michael H. Rothkopf.  The scholarship will provide recognition and financial assistance to outstanding graduate students enrolled in the Master of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management Program.  All full-time graduate students enrolled in the Master of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management Program who have achieved superior academic records or who manifest promise of outstanding academic success are eligible. 

Smeal MBA Team Places First In Case Competition

Reginald Amoa, Carl Asher, and Tai Parks, won first place in the fourth annual MBAE Minority Case Competition sponsored by Howard University and LMI Government Consulting.

Smeal Student Society Honors Norm Aggon

The Smeal Student Society has honored Norm Aggon by choosing him to be in the Smeal Student Society Spotlight. Stop by and see the poster about Norm in the Atrium.

Elena Katok Receives Endowed Fellowship

Elena Katok, professor of supply chain and information systems, was recently awarded the Calvin E. and Pamala T. Zimmerman University Endowed Fellowship of Business Administration. 

Cal was a 1967 graduate of the College of Business.  The Zimmerman’s created the professorship to strengthen, reward and recognize outstanding scholarship among faculty. Cal and Pam are local civic-minded Penn Staters devoted to strengthening the economic development and quality of life in the Centre region.

McCombs School (University of Texas) to Fund Study of Remanufactured Consumer Goods by Smeal Researchers

Dan Guide (SC&IS), Meg Meloy (Marketing), and Selin Atasu (Marketing) will conduct a study of consumer attitudes and perceptions of remanufactured consumer goods that will be funded by the McCombs School of Business at UT.  Dan plans to parlay the results of this pilot study into a large scale study funded by the NSF and interested companies.

Smeal Student Society Honors Felisa Preciado

The Smeal Student Society has honored Felisa Preciado, Clinical Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management, by choosing her to be in the Smeal Student Society Spotlight for instructional excellence. Stop by and see the poster about Felisa in the Atrium.

Fall 2008 SC&IS Career Fair

The Fall Supply Chain Career Fair held on September 23-24, 2008 was another great success in the Smeal Business Building Atrium. We had a combined total of 90 companies attending with 500 students from Supply Chain, MIS, IST, and Industrial Engineering. The following two days the companies conducted interviews with the students.

Along with the Supply Chain Career Fair, we hosted our second Supply Chain “Coffee House” on Monday night with 12 corporate sponsors running concurrent information sessions with about 150 students attending the event.

The Spring 2009 Supply Chain Career Fair will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, February 10-11, 2009.

Smeal Professors Pen Eighth Edition of Supply Chain Textbook

John Coyle and Robert Novack along with Edward Bardi of the University of Toledo, Brian Gibson of Auburn University and C. John Langley of the Georgia Institue of Technology coauthored the eighth edition of Supply Chain Management: A Logistics Perspective.

Christopher Craighead Receives Awards

Christopher Craighead was recipient of the Best Associate Editor Award, Journal of Operations Management.  He also received the Best Paper Award for International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, “Postponement: An Evolving Supply Chain Concept.” Chris was chosen by the Editors of IJPDLM for the Outstanding Paper Award Winner at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2008. 

New SC&IS Faculty

The SC&IS department has several new faculty members this year:  Christopher Craighead, assistant professor; Sandra Transchel, assistant professor; Lisa Mensinger, instructor; and Ralph Sees, instructor. 

New SC&IS PhD Students

Five new students have joined the Ph.D. program in SC&IS:  James Abbey, Kaitlin Dunn, Maurice Johnson, Hiroko Okajima and Yang Zhang.

New Marine Corps Fellows

Two new Marine Corps Fellows are onboard for the 2008-2009 academic year:  Lieutenant Colonel John Kasperski and Major Michael Monroe.

Susan Xu Receives NSF Grant

The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant of $167,066 to The Pennsylvania State University for support of the project entitled "Collaborative Research: Reliability Analysis of Spatial Systems with Local Interactions." This project is under the direction of Susan H. Xu, in collaboration with Li Haijun of Washington State University (PI, awarded $154,063) and Way Kuo of the University of Tennessee (co-PI, awarded $88,864).

SC&IS Participates in PSU International Studies Program

The SC&IS Department participated this summer in the PSU International Studies program at the Institute at Palazzo Rucellai in Florence, Italy. This was the first time faculty from PSU directly participated in a course at this Institution. The six-week three-credit course was “Production in Italy.” Seventeen PSU business students from varied majors and 14 students from the University of Connecticut comprised the class. The course introduced business students to a variety of manufacturing businesses as well as a number of unique manufacturing processes. Manufacturers included olive oil processing, a marble quarry, a textile mill, winery, as well as motorcycle and automotive manufacturing (Ducati and Lamborghini). Class assignments included student journals documenting their observations of key lessons learned and a “lean” exercise. Frank Chelko represented PSU while Dr. Jeff Rummel represented the University of Connecticut.

OEM Remanufacturing Round Table Meets At Smeal

Top managers from Alcatel-Lucent, Bosch Tool, Caterpillar, Cummins, GE Transportation and Xerox, all OEMs that engage in product recovery and remanufacturing , met May 1 and 2 at a round table held at Penn State's Smeal College of Business.

Promotion and Tenure

Congratulations to Elena Katok on her promotion to the rank of full professor and to David Huff on his promotion to clinical associate professor.

Big Ten Information Systems Research Symposium

Edward Glantz recently participated in the 7th Annual Big Ten Information Systems Research Symposium hosted by the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. 

SC&IS Graduate Students Receive Scholarships

Congratulations to Zheng (Justin) Jia on receiving one of the four Jeanne and Charles Rider Graduate Fellowships for 2008-2009 and to Andrew Davis on receiving one of the two Liberti/Olian Scholarships for 2008-2009.

Two SC&IS Majors Win Richter Scholarship Awards

Douglas Burke and Andrew Spicher, Supply Chain and Information Systems majors at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, were chosen by the R. Gene and Nancy D. Richter Foundation as two of six students around the country to receive the 2008 R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award.

Three SC&IS Professors Win Dillwyn Paiste Awards for Excellence in Teaching

Dr. Robert Novack, associate professor of supply chain and information systems, Dr. Edward Glantz, clinical assistant professor of information systems, and Frank Chelko, instructor of operations and supply chain management, were winners of the Dillywn P. Paiste, III Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Archived News and Awards