News

The inaugural IBM Day at UMD’s Smith School of Business featured class takeovers, coffee chats, and networking. Alumni shared insights on AI, consulting, and martech careers. IBM highlighted SkillsBuild and partnerships, connecting coursework with real-world business and technology applications.

Twenty-one Smith School professors were named among the top 2% most cited researchers globally, according to Elsevier’s 2025 study across 22 fields. Representing both current and emeritus faculty, their impactful research advances business knowledge and global academic excellence.

Led by President Rebecca Ratner, the Association for Consumer Research held its 2025 conference in Washington, D.C., exploring “Buying and Beyond.” Ratner emphasized social connection in her address, highlighting research on loneliness, consumer behavior, and marketing’s role in fostering connection.

P. K. Kannan, associate dean and marketing professor at the Smith School, was named a Fellow of the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science, honoring his decades of influential research, mentorship, and service in digital marketing, analytics, and marketing science.

Smith professor Jie Zhang and PhD alum Min Kim won the AMA’s 2025 Don Lehmann Award for their Journal of Marketing Research article on predicting online shopping preferences in dynamic, large-scale retail assortments.

Smith faculty are shaping policy, business and society through influential research and public service. From AI and insurance reform to pay equity and public pensions, they’re winning top awards and earning national recognition for impact and innovation across disciplines.

Smith’s Roland Rust has been named a 2025 ISSIP Fellow for pioneering contributions to service research, including founding key conferences and journals, and advancing AI scholarship in the field. He ranks among the world’s top 100 business research scientists.

Rebecca Ratner, dean’s professor of marketing, is serving as president of the Association for Consumer Research, leading efforts to expand member engagement, professionalize operations and amplify research impact. She will deliver her presidential address at ACR 2025 in Washington, D.C.

Smith School associate professors Liye Ma and Bobby Zhou were named 2024 MSI Scholars by the Marketing Science Institute, recognizing their influential research. The honor fosters collaboration among mid-career marketing academics, shaping the field’s future through scholarship and real-world impact.

The AMA TechSIG honored Smith’s P.K. Kannan with its inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award for his impactful research in marketing technology and innovation. Kannan, an expert in digital marketing and AI, shared the recognition with USC’s Gerard Tellis at the AMA Winter Conference.