COMPUTER INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Detmar Straub, distinguished professor of information systems and director of research and doctoral programs, will be co-chairing the program for one of the two major professional conferences in the information systems field in August 2001. The conference is the Americas Conference of the Association for Information Systems (AMCIS) in Boston.

Veda Storey, associate professor, will be co-chairing the program for the other major IS conference, the International Conference on Information Systems, in December in New Orleans.

Ephraim R. McLean, professor and George I Smith Eminent Scholar's Chair in the Computer Information Systems Department, has been elected vice president for academic affairs of the Society for Information Management International, the leading association of senior information system executives in the world. His term of office began in January of this year.

Under the leadership of instructor Dr. James Brown, a team of five graduating seniors in computer information systems is developing an Internet web site for the Atlanta Mayor's Office of Community Technology, helping with the City of Atlanta's initiative to bridge the "digital divide" between citizens who have computers and those who don't. The Office of Community Technology is building computer labs, called Cyber Centers, in local Atlanta neighborhoods so that residents can learn computer technology and access the Internet. The students working on the project are Sarah Azhar, Christine Machado, Euthressa Ring, Van Mac and Tiffani Bryant, all enrolled in CIS 4980 Spring Semester. The project was arranged and supervised by Brown.

E-COMMERCE

Professor Arun Rai (of the eCommerce Institute) was recently awarded a $40,000 IBM faculty fellowship for his program of work in e-commence and supply chain management. His research program focuses on investigating the complementary capabilities between information technology, business model capabilities and supply chain coordination. Rai is investigating these relationships in different industries and sectors and in the context of purely digital prod u cts/servi ces and digitally enhanced physical products/services. Through several projects under way with colleagues and doctoral students, Rai is developing close ties with industry to generate rigorous, state-of-the-art research on relevant problems.

Along with Jonathan Wareham (assistant professor, computer information systems), Rai is conducting a detailed case study of Omnexus, a multi suppliersponsored marketplace in the plastics and injection molding industry. IBM provided the initial technology platform for Omnexus, and the founding suppliers include BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont and Ticona. Rai and Wareham are examining how Omnexus is being developed and scaled up, and its impact on global coordination in different supply chain processes.

Data collection for two doctoral dissertations is being facilitated by UPS, The doctoral students are Ashley Bush (co-supervised by Mark III of CIS) and Richard Klein (co-supervised by Detmar Straub of CIS).

As a complement to the UPS research piece, Rai and David Forquer (director of the RCB Office of Executive Programs) have been developing a customized supply chain management executive education workshop for UPS. The audience for the workshop will include both UPS corporate and district marketing managers.

In addition, Rai was recently appointed associate editor of Information Systems Research, a premier journal in the information systems field.

HEALTH ADMINISTRATION

James R Cooney, professor in health administration, was recently published in Longterm Core Interface magazine. In addition to being on the health administration faculty, he is also associate director for the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Health Policy Center Glenn Landers, health policy analyst, and Jullianna Williams, graduate research assistant, are co-authors of the article.

MANAGEMENT

Dr. Vida Scarpello, professor of management, was elected fellow of the Southern Management Association (SMA), an organization of management professors within business schools across the South. The honor of fellow is bestowed on members of SMA who have made significant contributions to the science and practice of management by superior research and scholarship and secondarily by service to SMA. Three percent of SMA members are fellows. Scarpello also participated on the first research proposal review panel on workplace violence conducted by the Oklahoma City National Institute for Terrorism Prevention in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Additionally, she served as a member of the distinguished reviewer panel for the National Science Foundation's Program on Innovation and Technology.