PhD Program News

[ PhD Presence ] [ New PhD Students ]

PhD Presence
» Congratulations to Heather Adams and Guruprasad Pundoor for winning First and Second Prize in the D&IT Department student web site contest. Over the summer all returning students were invited to prepare pages highlighting their personal and professional interests. Heather and Guru were judged by the faculty as having the two best sites. In addition, Corey Angst was randomly selected from all participating students to win an additional cash prize.

A complete list of doctoral student web pages can be found at http://www.smith.umd.edu/dit/doctoral/meet.html.
 

 
» Our doctoral program was well represented at the 2004 Academy of Management Conference conference held in New Orleans in August. Liokebe Maruping and Jennifer Lindsay presented their paper entitled "If you build it will they come? Investigating the impact of collaborative software functionality on information sharing behavior in virtual teams," and Steven L. Johnson presented his paper on "Enterprise Software Information Quality: Matching IT Assumptions and Organizational Norms."
 

 
» We also had a strong presence at the 2004 Americas Conference on Information Systems held in New York City in August. Ming "Jesse" Ma presented a paper on "Does the Internet Change the Competition of Scholarly Communities?", Animesh presented "The Impact Of B2B Exchange Membership On Firm Value: An Event Study Analysis" and Fe Ye presented her collaboration with Dr. Ritu Agarwal entitled "Strategic Information Technology Partnerships in Outsourcing as a Distinctive Source of Information Technology Value: A Social Capital Perspective."


New PhD Students

Management Science/Statistics:  

» William Mennell: I grew up in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, studied violin and organ at Oberlin Conservatory for a year before completely changing career paths. I ended up earning a computer science degree at Slippery Rock University and then served 3 years jumping out of planes as an infantry platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division including time in both Afghanistan and Iraq. My interests lie mainly in vehicle routing and graph theory. I live in Laurel, MD with my wife of two years.

 
» Scott Nestler: Originally from Harrisburg, PA, my educational background includes a BS in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University and an MS in Applied Math from the Naval Postgraduate School. I have been an Active Duty Army officer for 14 years, serving with PATRIOT missile units in Texas, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea, on the faculty of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and as Operations Research Analyst in the Pentagon. Upon completion of a Ph.D. in Management Science, I will rejoin the faculty at West Point. I live in University Park with my wife and daughter.

 
» Matthew Reindorp: Undergraduate studies in mathematics at Reed College (Portland, OR); MBA from Boston College (concentration in Finance). Two years of work in financial analysis and data management prompted my interest in business research.

Information Technology:
 
» Catherine Anderson: I obtained my Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce from the University of Virginia. I concentrated in Management Information Systems and Marketing. After graduation, I went to work for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Most of the work I did while at Andersen Consulting was for Federal and State government clients. I left Andersen Consulting in 2000 to pursue teaching at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC). I taught information systems courses at NVCC for almost 4 years. My research interests include public/private sector differences in approaching information resource management, the behavioral impacts of security and information systems in healthcare. I live in Fairfax, VA with my 3 sons.

 
» Ritu Narayan: I was born and brought up in New Delhi, India. After obtaining my undergraduate degree in Engineering from the Delhi Institute of Technology, I completed my MBA from the Indian Institute of Management at Lucknow, India. Before joining the Ph.D. program in IS, I worked for over five years across business functions and industries. I started my career in the sales function of a consumer products multinational, then headed the marketing function for a dotcom, and finally moved to consulting in the e-business space. I currently live in Silver Spring, MD with my husband and son.

 
» Yong Kwang (Adrian) Yeow: I am from Singapore and I studied at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and my basic degree was in Communications Studies with specialization in Comms Research. I graduated in 1997 and worked first in Singapore Telecoms Ltd as a Product Executive and helped launched the first broadband service in Singapore. I moved on to be a product manager/project manager for a few dot-coms and worked in launching ISPs and online services from 1999-2002. My last job was as a Senior Tutor in NTU in the business school in the IT dept and taught in freshmen classes and conducted case studies with the IT center. I am married with 2 kids. The older is a boy who is three and the younger is a girl who is 6 months. I am living in Bladensburg.

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