Release Date: Tuesday, May 2, 2006

UGA's Terry College of Business names 2006 Outstanding Faculty Award winners

ATHENS, Ga. — The Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia presented awards for outstanding teaching, research and service to three faculty members at the college's annual faculty recognition banquet, held May 1 at the Athens Country Club.

Allen Amason, associate professor of management, received the Outstanding Teaching Award. Amason, who joined the Terry College faculty in 1996, is known to his peers and students as a superb instructor across all degree programs — from undergraduate to Executive MBA and PhD programs. He was named MBA Teacher of the Year in 1999 and has been a finalist for that honor numerous other times. On three occasions he has been selected as the Outstanding Professor by students in the Terry College's customized MBA program for management consultants employed by IBM Global Business Services.

A four-time winner of the Management Department's Undergraduate Teaching Award, Amason is regarded by his colleagues as a teacher who won't caudle his students but teaches with such passion that his enthusiasm for the subject matter is infectious. "This course has challenged my mind more than any other I have taken," one of Amason's students said about his graduate course in strategic management. "He combines textbook material and real world examples very well," added another.

Rick Watson, who serves as director of the Center for Information Systems Leadership and holds the J. Rex Fuqua Distinguished Chair for Internet Strategy in the Department of Management Information Systems, received the Outstanding Research Award.

A Terry College faculty member since 1989, Watson has published over 100 journal articles and more than half of them have been published in the past eight years. His research has appeared in leading academic journals across a number of disciplines, from MIS Quarterly to Communications Research to Harvard Business Review. He has also published three textbooks and numerous chapters, monographs and other writings. He travels frequently to present his research at the invitation of research groups and institutions around the world, and in 2005 he made keynote speeches on five continents. He continues to have an active role in the Association for Information Systems, of which he was president in 2004-2005.

"Professor Watson's approach is to recognize the issues that will soon be important, and to move quickly into those areas before other researchers have recognized their importance," said MIS Department Head Dale Goodhue. "This means that his research is not only voluminous, but also very interesting and valuable. Many of his publications have served to guide and structure the initial thinking of both other researchers and practitioners on cutting-edge issues."

Robert Hoyt, who holds the Dudley L. Moore Jr. Chair of Insurance, received the Outstanding Service Award. A faculty member since 1988, Hoyt was named head of Terry's Department of Insurance, Legal Studies and Real Estate in July 2000.

Hoyt's service activities have supported not only the Terry College and the University of Georgia but have also included extensive academic and professional service to the field of risk management and insurance. He is a past president of the American Risk and Insurance Association, the Southern Risk and Insurance Association and the Risk Theory Society. He's also served on the editorial boards of Journal of Insurance Regulation, Risk Management and Insurance Review and Journal of Financial Service Professionals. Since 2003, Hoyt has served on the National Advisory Board for the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter program and is an academic member of the Atlanta CPCU Society. In 2005, he was the first academic elected to a three-year term on the board of the Spencer Educational Foundation, which awards scholarships to students studying risk management and grants to risk management programs. He also serves on the board of the Griffith Foundation for Insurance Education.

Internationally, Hoyt lectured and conducted research on a Fulbright grant in 1995 at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration in Austria. He has also lectured at universities in Japan and Germany (delivering his remarks in German) and has served as an academic moderator for seminars held in Vienna, Singapore, New York, London and Hong Kong.

Locally, Hoyt serves on the board of directors for the non-profit HMO Athens Area Health Plan Select and gives frequent presentations to Athens-area community and business groups on insurance-related topics.

The Terry College's Outstanding Faculty Award winners were chosen by a committee of their peers based on nominations from the college's seven academic departments. Each recipient received a $1,000 cash prize.

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