Message From the Dean

This semester has been one for the books at the Naveen Jindal School of Management — literally. I am pleased and excited to announce that our Online MBA program was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. by Poets & Quants, a publication devoted to covering business schools. That’s not just among public schools; that’s overall, another indication that our School is now recognized as one of the very best business schools in the nation.

Last week, U.S. News & World Report announced its rankings as well. The Jindal School was ranked No. 8 (tied) among public university programs and No. 14 (tied) overall among its Best Part-Time MBA Programs ranking. The Full-time MBA program jumped from No. 37 to No. 31 — No. 12 among public schools. JSOM placed No. 5 in its Best Business Analytics MBA Programs ranking and No. 11 — No. 9 among public schools — in its Best Online MBA Programs. I am also happy to report that our Full-time MBA program was one of eight schools that have achieved gender parity, according to Forté Foundation’s 2024 annual report.

We continue to excel in research. In the 2025 installment of the UTD Top 100 Business School Research Rankings™ which tracks research productivity among the world’s business schools, UT Dallas came in at No. 2 behind University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. UT Dallas also placed No. 6 in the world in Financial Times’ research rankings.

We have been busy innovating on the curriculum front. We have a new degree approved in Cybersecurity. We will be admitting students starting in the fall of 2025. We have also been revising our curricula to include the impact of artificial intelligence in all of our degree programs. More than 50 new courses focusing on applications of artificial intelligence in different domains have been developed or revised in the past year. We have also created a faculty cluster in healthcare management with our new Healthcare Management academic area. We have more than 600 students, including many physicians, studying healthcare management in our School.

I should also mention that our long-running Business of Healthcare Podcast, presented by the Center for Healthcare Leadership and Management, now has nearly 130 episodes. This podcast was started by Dr. Britt Berrett and Jimmie Markham. It made major strides in listenership with Dr. Bob Kaiser as host and is currently hosted by our faculty member, Dan Karnuta, the director of our Professional Program in Healthcare Management. The show recently concluded a series about the different aspects of AI in healthcare. In addition, we recently graduated our first cohort of EMBA students from our educational partnership with Harris Health System, UTHealth Houston, and Baylor College of Medicine.

Our faculty members also continue to notch their own successes, both in terms of quantity and quality. Dr. Mehmet Ayvaci, an associate professor in the Jindal School’s Information Systems Area, won the Sanjay Mehrotra Research Excellence Award from the Health Applications Society. Dr. Howard Dover and Dr. Khai Chiong, both from the Jindal School’s Marketing Area, and their co-authors won the Best Paper on AI & Marketing Award 2024 from the American Marketing Association for “Can AI and AI-Hybrids Detect Persuasion Skills? Salesforce Hiring with Conversational Video Interviews.”

Dr. Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng, Ashbel Smith Professor in the Jindal School’s Information Systems Area, has won an award reserved for academics who are considered the elite of the information systems discipline. Zheng was one of the winners of the Information Systems Society’s 2024 ISS Distinguished Fellow Award, a lifetime achievement award shared by several of our faculty members (including your humble dean).

In alumni news, Charles D. Davidson, MS’80, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed by UT Dallas upon its alumni. Our second annual JSOM Alumni Reunion was held in April with more than 1,800 registrants. This event is already a tradition and shaping our School’s culture of giving back.

Students from the Jindal School competed this semester in business-related competitions and did well, as usual. A team of JSOM undergraduate business analytics students competed recently in the National Collegiate Consulting Championship at Baylor University and were runners-up. Another undergraduate team from our Computer Information Systems & Technology program competed in the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management CoMIS 2025 case competition and were first runners-up. Two Jindal School teams competed in the UT Arlington Student Analytics Competition this March. They took first and third place. Congratulations to all the students who competed!

The spring semester has been a very busy time for us, hosting many conferences, as we do every semester. These conferences are part of our strategy to establish our School as one of the leaders among business schools nationally. The second edition of our Academic Summit for Business Analytics took place, as did the 19th installment of the Frank M. Bass – UT Dallas Frontiers of Research in Marketing Science (UTD FORMS) Conference. Other conferences this semester included the Biz AI Conference, which focuses on AI in business research, and the Fintech & Digital Assets Workshop 2025, also known as UTD COMTECH.

Our Center for Global Business presented a conference in Africa this semester as part of the Ann and Jack Graves Foundation Conference Series. This year the event was held in Ghana. Its theme was “Sustainability as a Solution to Global Business Challenges: A Focus on Africa.”

We also partnered with Agora to bring the Quaint Quant Conference to the UTD Campus. Topics related to quantitative analysis in which mathematical and statistical methods are used to analyze financial markets and manage investments were discussed.

Well over 500 people attended the 19th Annual Fraud Summit, presented by the Center for Internal Auditing Excellence. Nearly 300 had participated in the workshop the day before. Auditors at several levels get together at this event to gain insights on how to take their game to the next level as they deal with the games that fraudsters play.

Two conferences focused on academic success were also held this semester: the 13th Annual Supply Chain Management Directors Conference and the 5th Annual Undergraduate Deans Conference. Both were well attended and offered a variety of sessions that exemplify the Jindal School’s innovation and thought leadership.

Finally, earlier this month we held a conference and memorial service to honor our dear colleague Professor Milind Dawande, whom we lost last summer. His impact on our School and the field of Operations Management has been immense. He will always be remembered as a kind friend and teacher.

As you can see, this spring we truly had a busy semester at the Jindal School. I want to thank our students, alumni, faculty, staff and community friends. Our achievements would not be possible without your constant encouragement and support. Your commitment to our School and higher education is truly inspiring.

Best Wishes,

Hasan Pirkul