Awards and Honors
Teaching Awards
Professor Gattis received three teaching awards for excellence in Professional Graduate Programs in 2025; the Innovative Teaching Practices Teaching Award, Outstanding Mentorship and Guidance Teaching Award, and the Real-world Application of Knowledge Teaching Award.
Professor Lunn received Outstanding Mentorship and Guidance award.
Professor Simin received Excellence in Student Engagement honorable mention.
For his excellence in teaching FIN 410, Associate Professor Vanden was nominated for two Smeal College Teaching Excellence Awards in the undergraduate program, including one for a Quantitative Course.
Research Recognition
Matthew Gustafson’s research article, "The JOBS Act and IPO Volume: Evidence that Disclosure Costs Affect the IPO Decision," was recently cited in testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture. Michael S. Piwowar, executive vice president of the Milken Institute’s Finance Pillar and president of the Economic Mobility Alliance, earned his Ph.D. in finance from Smeal. The Milken Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. Piwowar’s testimony focused on "the critical role that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission plays in the regulation of our capital markets and how that expertise can be applied to digital asset markets."
Assistant Professor Stefan Lewellen was appointed in 2025 as a new research member to the ECGI global research network.
The "Assaying Anomalies" project, authored by Associate Professor Mish Velikov and coauthor Robert Novy-Marx was covered by VoxEU and the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and received the 2024 INQUIRE UK conference best presentation prize, the 2025 INQUIRE Research Grant, and a Geneva Institute for Wealth Management Research Grant.
His research has also been mentioned in the following media:
- "AI-Powered (Finance) Scholarship", Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, Blog post
- "AI-powered research generation: Promise and perils for academic finance", VoxEU, Internet
- "Artificial Intelligence and the Risks of Harking (Hypothesizing After-the-Fact)", Alpha Architect, Internet
- "Complete Finance Research by LLMs?", CXO Advisory Group, Internet
- "It’s Tough to Be a Research Analyst", bloomberg.com, Internet
- "The Truth About AI-Generated Research And Its Impact On Education", forbes.com, Internet
- "The Expected Returns of Machine-Learning Strategies", Quantpedia, Internet
Professor Thomas Geelen's research on CEO succession was mentioned by European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and Finance Theory Group (FTG).
"Creditor Coalitions in Bankruptcy", coauthored by Professors Huang, Lewellen, and Wang was selected for the Harvard-Wharton Restructuring Conference and featured by both the Harvard Bankruptcy Roundtable and the Oxford Business Law Blog in 2025.
Best Paper Awards
PhD student Jewon Shin received a Best Student Paper award at the Southwest Finance Association 2025 annual meeting for his paper "Burdening the Young: Life Cycle Effects of Mandatory Disclosure on Investment" coauthored with Professor Gustafson.
Professor Kimberly Cornaggia received the best paper award for her presentation of "ESG Ratings Management" co-authored by Jess Cornaggia at the December 2024 Massey Sustainable Finance Conference.
Editorial Awards
Professor Jess Cornaggia has earned either the Meritorious Service Award or the Distinguished Service Award in every year since 2018 for his service as an Associate Editor at Management Science.
Professor Peter Iliev received the “RCFS Referee of the Year” award from the Review of Corporate Finance Studies.