Queen’s School of Business presents new Award

Professors Yolande Chan and Marc Busch recognized for outstanding contributions to research

2000-10-16 - Associate Professors Yolande Chan and Marc Busch are the inaugural winners of Queen’s School of Business’s New Researcher Award. The New Researcher Award will be presented annually to a faculty member who, within ten years of receiving their PhD, has made outstanding contributions to their chosen research field.

Chan – who is a Rhodes Scholar, a Queen’s National Scholar, and holds degrees from MIT, Oxford and the University of Western Ontario – focuses on the alignment of an organization’s business and information technology strategies. Her work has been published in numerous academic journals, including Information Systems Research, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Journal of Management Information Systems, Academy of Management Executive, and Information & Management. But it is the immediate impact of her most recent study – a study into health information networks and how health service organizations can interconnect dispersed information systems – that currently motivates her most.

“It encourages me to see research that has an immediate impact,” says Chan. “In this case, I believe that patient care has improved, and will continue to improve, as a result of the research and as a result of articles I was able to provide to healthcare organizations. I believe research findings are to be shared, so I’ve assumed a role in sharing relevant findings with that community.”

Chan credits her supportive family, professional and church communities as playing a key role in her success as an academic.

Busch, a Queen’s National Scholar who came to Kingston in July from Harvard, conducts research in two primary areas: dispute settlement at the World Trade Organization and the role of early settlement in particular, and the implications of geographically concentrated industries. His papers have appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, International Organization, Journal of Conflict Resolution, and several edited volumes. Professor Busch is also the author of Trade Warriors (Cambridge University Press, 1999) – a book explaining the strategic trade policies of governments in high technology industries. Busch holds a PhD from Columbia University (1994).

Teaching and research working in tandem
Teaching and research coincide for these two scholars. Chan has been widely recognized for her commitment to her students and was awarded the 1993-1994 Commerce Professor Student Life Award. Busch, who received many Awards for his teaching while at Harvard, uses his infectious enthusiasm for his research to inspire students to get excited about the puzzles they will inevitably encounter in their schooling and in business.

“The course you deliver is far more exciting if you are vigorously engaged in your research,” says Busch. “If my research motivates me to put so much of my life into it, then surely that enthusiasm and motivation will come across to my students.”

Busch believes faculty members have an obligation to train professors, not just develop researchers. For this reason, he has created two tools for use by MSc and PhD students: “Five steps for writing a senior thesis”, and a presentation template for PhD students on the job market. While Director of Graduate Student Programs at Harvard’s Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs, Busch initiated professionalization seminars. The seminars, which Professor Busch hopes to introduce at Queen’s, focussed on topics such as graduate and undergraduate teaching and presenting at conferences.

While their areas of research differ significantly, Yolande Chan and Marc Busch share a passion for excellence in research and a desire to affect the world in positive ways. Fortunately for Chan and Busch – and their colleagues at Queen’s School of Business – new research questions crop up daily, allowing them to continue to make their mark.