Oh Be Joyful, the Kellogg School’s annual celebration of faculty and staff contributions and promotions, brought the Kellogg community together for a festive dinner Saturday, June 5, at the James L. Allen Center.

Scott McKeon, senior lecturer in Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences (MEDS), received the coveted Lawrence G. Lavengood Professor of the Year Award from graduating students, who nominated a record-breaking 85 faculty members in the award’s ninth year.

“It’s a great honor to receive this award,” McKeon said in a recent interview. “I am just trying to make good decisions in the classroom—trying to put myself in the students’ shoes and feel what the classroom experience is like for them.”

Lavengood award finalists were Julie Hennessy (Marketing), Sergio Rebelo (Finance), Steven Rogers, (Management and Finance) and Scott Schaefer (Management and Strategy).

Oh Be Joyful was hosted by Kellogg School Dean Dipak C. Jain, who said the anniversary of his tenure as dean, which began three years ago, coincides happily with this occasion.

“It’s been a wonderful learning experience,” he said. “Kellogg is an extremely special place.” He recounted how a prospective student at the recent Day at Kellogg remarked on the wonderful faculty and students and asked, “in typical business parlance,” if the level of excellence at Kellogg was “sustainable.” “Yes,” Dean Jain replied, “it is sustainable.”

The same can be said for Oh Be Joyful, which Kellogg School Dean Emeritus Donald P. Jacobs brought to the school 20 years ago after becoming aware of an event with that name at Unilever Corp.

“Senior management would gather in a catacomb-like restaurant and review the successes at the organization,” said Bob Magee, senior associate dean, faculty and research. “After each success was described, something like, ‘sales are up 15 percent,’ the group would say, ‘Oh be joyful!’”.

The Kellogg School’s version of sales being up is its impressive number of faculty research and honors, noted Magee and Bob Korajczyk, senior associate dean, curriculum and teaching. They singled out Mark Satterthwaite, who recently was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

J. Peter Murmann, assistant professor of Management and Organizations, won the 2004 Stanley Reiter Best Paper Award for his 2003 book, Knowledge and Competitive Advantage: The Coevolution of Firms, Technology, and National Institutions, which examines how William Henry Perkin serendipitously invented the first synthetic dye in England. He successfully commercialized his discovery, which represented the first time that a scientific discovery quickly gave rise to a new industry.

Named in honor of Stanley Reiter, Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences, the Reiter award recognizes a paper written by a Kellogg faculty member and judged “best” within the preceding four calendar years. A panel of Kellogg School professors from across disciplines serves as the selection committee for the award.

David Besanko (Management and Strategy) was a finalist in the John D. C. Little Best Paper Award from Management Science.

Recipients of the 2004 Chairs’ Core Course Teaching Awards are Karl Schmedders (MEDS), Adriano Rampini (Finance), Anne Gron (Management and Strategy), Kent Grayson (Marketing), Victoria Medvec (MORS) and Sharon Novak (MEDS).

Recipients of the Sidney J. Levy Teaching Awards, which honor those who teach elective courses, are Lakshman Krishnamurthi (Marketing), Todd Pulvino (Finance), Hayagreeva Rao (MORS), Artur Raviv (Finance) and Sergio Rebelo (Finance).

In the Executive Masters Program Outstanding Professor Awards category, EMP 55 and 56 honored Sunil Chopra (MEDS) for Core teaching, and Steven Rogers for electives. EMP 57 honored Raviv for Core and Rebelo for electives. Brian Uzzi (MORS) received the International Executive MBA (IEMBA) award for his classes at the Kellogg School of Business and Management at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in China.

Alice Tybout (Marketing) received the Alumni Reunion Outstanding Professor Award.

In total, the 2003 intellectual output of the Kellogg School resulted in 108 articles, 10 cases, 21 book chapters and 11 books.