Recognized for her tireless efforts toward enhancing the student experience and mission of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Ritu Agarwal received the UMD President’s Medal during the 38th Annual Faculty and Staff Convocation on Wednesday.

As courses convene for the new academic year, Maryland Smith is welcoming eight new scholars to its faculty. Tejwansh (Tej) Anand is joining the decision, operations and information technologies department as a clinical professor. Anand earned a PhD from Columbia University.

Maryland Smith’s Ritu Agarwal was elected as a fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). The honor is in recognition of her lifetime contributions to the profession and is reserved for only the very top academics and professionals in the field.

Industry Leaders and prominent academics will meet to discuss and share research on “Service in the World of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies” in the 2021 Frontiers in Service Conference. The virtual event takes place 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both Friday and Saturday, July 9-10.

The Journal of Service Research, founded by Maryland Smith’s Roland Rust and sponsored by Smith’s Center for Excellence in Service, is among the most impactful journals in business studies, according to the latest impact factor published by Clarivate’s Web of Science.

Maryland Smith’s Gah-Yi Ban won the 2021 Best Operations Management paper in Operations Research from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research, management science and analytics.

Maryland Smith’s Wedad Elmaghraby, professor of operations management and management science, was awarded the Distinguished Service Award for 2021 by the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (MSOM) society.

In their seven-week experiential learning projects, master’s of quantitative finance students are given a task that realistically would take many months to accomplish. That’s intentional, says Maryland Smith’s Clifford Rossi. In academics as in life, the most arduous challenges are often the ones that teach us the most.

Eight faculty members earned Maryland Smith teaching honors last week, as part of an annual tradition at the business school.Tunay Tunca, chair of Maryland Smith's Teaching Excellence Committee, announced the faculty teaching awards during a virtual spring faculty and staff assembly. Tunca is the Dean's Professor of Management Science and Operations Management at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at University of Maryland.Special Recognition: Tricia Homer

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler is looking to the future – one oriented around the intersection of finance and technology, climate change and human capital. Gensler's remarks opened the eighth annual Conference on Financial Market Regulation, which offers a forum for leaders from academia, government, the financial sector, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to discuss regulatory policies and relevant industry topics.