The Association for Information Systems has recognized a faculty member in the Naveen Jindal School of Management with the AIS Fellow Award.
Dr. Sumit Sarkar, Charles and Nancy Davidson Chair, Professor of Information Systems and director of the Jindal School’s PhD Programs was selected by the AIS for having “made outstanding contributions to the information systems discipline in terms of research, teaching and service.”
One of 12 recipients for 2022, Sarkar received the award for his extensive body of research that spans multiple decades, several service roles for the association, and service on editorial boards of leading academic journals including Management Science, Information Systems Research and MIS Quarterly. All three are tracked in The UTD Top 100 Business School Research Rankings™. He also has served as program chair for multiple conferences including the AIS’ International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) and the Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems (WITS).
Dr. Prabuddha De, the Accenture University Professor Emeritus of Information Technology at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management and an AIS Fellow Award recipient in 2014, was one of the colleagues who nominated Sarkar for the award.
“I can unequivocally say that Professor Sarkar is a scholar of the highest order” De wrote in his nomination letter. “He is an outstanding researcher, with many publications in leading journals. He has also made significant contributions to the IS academic arena in various other ways, including serving in editorial capacities for a number of major journals, mentoring doctoral students, and playing important roles for several organizations, including AIS. In my opinion, Professor Sarkar is a most deserving candidate for the AIS Fellow Award.”
Sarkar said that this award is meaningful to him because the recognition comes from his peers.
“First of all, I am both humbled and delighted by the recognition. When my peers recognize me for my contributions it’s a little different from my superiors’ recognition,” he said. “These are not people for whom I am doing work in a more direct manner. My supervisor may give me tasks and I may do them well and they might recognize me; but with an award like this one, I’m doing work in a community with a lot of different people in different capacities. If they have chosen to recognize me, it means, at the end of the day that I have been able to make some difference to the larger community.”
The AIS Council and the ICIS Executive Committee established the award in 1999. According to the website, “AIS Fellows are expected to act [as] a role model and an inspiration to colleagues and students within the information systems discipline. In addition, they should be capable of garnering the respect of individuals from outside the discipline who from time to time have an interest in the discipline. AIS Fellows should be esteemed for their high levels of professional and personal integrity.”
