SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Bayer announced plans in May 2016 for a buyout of Monsanto, and critics did not wait long before blasting the proposed megadeal. MarketWatch called it bad news for anyone who grows or eats food.

Congratulations to Professor Sally Simpson, director of C-BERC and professor in the department of criminology and criminal justice, on being appointed a member in the Committee on Law and Justice, National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (2016-2019)!

The Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business is pleased to announce that Mark Wellman, clinical professor of management and organization, is the recipient of the inaugural CIBER Award for Teaching Innovation in Global Learning. The award aims to recognize a Smith faculty member who has demonstrated a commitment to teaching for a global mindset, meaning an openness to and awareness of diversity across cultures and markets.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Amazon may be synonymous with online shopping and fast shipping, but Walmart isn't ceding the e-commerce field to its hipper rival. Walmart announced last week that it was ramping up its efforts to counter Amazon's very successful Amazon Prime program — for $99 a year, Amazon offers free two-day shipping and a host of other benefits, i

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Saudi Arabia has announced a plan to spin off about 5 percent of its state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco — which, at $2 trillion (some estimates are even higher), may be the most valuable company on Earth.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Berkshire Hathaway’s small but much-discussed bite of Apple suggests a vote of confidence for a tech giant that had been sliding in the stock market.

Experts at a recent University of Maryland event said innovation will play a key yet unpredictable role as the United States moves toward meeting the goals set forth in the Paris Agreement on climate change, namely keeping the global temperature rise to significantly below 2 degrees Celsius. Current projections about slowing climate change may be pessimistic, but such pessimism involves extrapolating from current sociological and technological trends. Human ingenuity "is not in the models," said David A.

The Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland is recognized as one of the top research institutions in the world, but it is also a place where students can learn from some of the best teachers in a highly supportive community. At the end of each academic year, the school honors its outstanding faculty and staff members with awards of excellence. The awards were presented at the School Assembly on May 6, 2016.

Founder-CEOs and CEOs related to the founder see the world differently than CEOs of non-family firms, and they pursue different strategies, according to new research from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Crashes of large trucks are on the rise in the United States.