February 20, 2003
Deloitte Recognizes McCombs PhD Student
Deloitte Foundation Awards $250,000 To Ten Top Ph.D. Students
|
WILTON, CT, February 20, 2003 - The Deloitte Foundation has awarded $250,000 in fellowship grants to ten doctoral students in accounting across the country. Jennifer L. Brown, a PhD student at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business, was among this year's recipients.
"I feel honored to have been chosen," said Brown. "It’s always wonderful to have financial support as a doctoral student."
The Doctoral Fellowship Program is funded through the Deloitte Foundation, a not-for-profit organization associated with Deloitte & Touche LLP, one of the nation's leading professional services firms. Since its inception in 1956, the program has assisted more than 900 outstanding doctoral students in accounting. Each of the 2003 Deloitte & Touche Doctoral Fellows will receive $5,000 during his or her final year of course work and $20,000 during the subsequent year of completing a dissertation.
"Deloitte & Touche is honored to support the hard work and dedication of these top accounting students who plan a career in the research and teaching of accounting and business," said Mark M. Chain, national director of recruiting at Deloitte & Touche and president of the Deloitte Foundation.
Brown, who has not yet finalized her dissertation topic, hopes to complete her PhD by 2005 and become a business school professor at "a good, solid, research institution like the University of Texas at Austin."
She spoke glowingly of the doctoral program at Texas. "We have great support from the research faculty in the department, and the doctoral students are a wonderfully collegial group," said Brown of her McCombs colleagues. "We really support one another -- I simply would not have made it through the first year of the program without the combined effort of my colleagues."
Brown's primary mentors at McCombs have been John Robinson and Steve Kachelmeier. She noted that the faculty in the accounting department have a wide range of research interests and expertise, "and consequently our doctoral program ensures that we as students receive a broad-based education."
Nationwide, the 10 recipients of the Deloitte Foundation Doctoral Fellowships in Accounting for 2003 are:
| Jennifer L. Brown | University of Texas - Austin |
| Weili Ge | University of Michigan |
| Elaine Henry | Rutgers University |
| Stacie O. Kelley | University of Washington |
| Ryan Z. LaFond | University of Wisconsin |
| Feng Li | University of Chicago |
| David Craig Nichols | Indiana University |
| Melvin David Piercey | University of Illinois |
| Jonathan L. Rogers | University of Pennsylvania |
| Wendy M. Wilson | University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill |
The program, one of the first of its type, attracts applicants from nearly 100 schools across the country.
"The fellowship grants allow ten of the best and brightest to focus solely on their research during the crucial dissertation stage, and hit the ground running as they begin their professional careers," said Professor Robert Libby of Cornell University, who sat on the 2003 selection committee.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
