University of Maryland Marketing Professor Wins Top Award

College Park, Md. – August 11, 2008 – Michel Wedel, PepsiCo Professor of Consumer Science at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, recently received the American Marketing Association’s Gilbert A. Churchill Award for lifetime achievement in the academic study of marketing research. Dr. Wedel received his award at the American Marketing Association’s Summer Marketing Educators’ Conference in San Diego on August 9.

“Michel is widely regarded as one of the top scholars in the world on consumer science, and his prolific research has had profound impact on the marketing industry,” said G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business. “I am thrilled that our faculty members continue to be honored for furthering business management knowledge and practices.”

The association’s Market Research Special Interest Group presented the 12th annual award, named for a prolific researcher, author, teacher and administrator, retired from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The University of Maryland is now one of only two schools to have two winners of this prestigious award on their faculties; Smith’s Roland Rust, Distinguished University Professor and David Bruce Smith Chair in Marketing, was recognized with the honor in 2000.

Wedel’s main research interest is in consumer science -- the application of statistical and econometric methods to further the understanding of consumer behavior and to improve marketing decision making. He has won the Hendrik Muller lifetime award for the social and behavioral sciences awarded by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences for “exceptional achievements in the area of the behavioral and social sciences,” and has been elected foreign correspondent of that academy. He has also won the O’Dell best article award from the Journal of Marketing Research. He has written more than 150 articles in peer reviewed journals that have been cited more than 2,000 times. He was ranked first among all scholars in economics and business in the Netherlands.

Wedel serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Classification, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, and the Journal of Marketing, and is area editor for Marketing Science and the Journal of Marketing Research. He has published books on market segmentation, models for marketing decisions and visual marketing. He has consulted for more than 25 different companies in the nonprofit and profit sectors, including companies in market research, consulting, direct marketing, food, financial services, automotive, and telecommunications.

About the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 14 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, executive MS, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations on three continents — North America, Europe and Asia.