Source: Amir Tavakkol, 785-532-4375, atav@k-state.edu
Pronouncer: Amir Tavakkol is ah-MEER TAH-vah-kohl
News release prepared by: Andy Badeker, 785-532-6415, abadeker@k-state.edu
Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007
K-STATE FINANCE PROFESSOR WINS FULBRIGHT TO LECTURE IN GERMANY
MANHATTAN -- Amir Tavakkol, an associate professor of finance at Kansas State University's College of Business Administration, is headed back to eastern Germany, this time as a Fulbright senior scholar.
Next spring Tavakkol will journey to the Europa-Universitat Viadrina in Frankfurt on the Oder, where he plans to teach corporate finance and investments and to pursue his research on earnings management. It will be his fourth visit to the university, which has an exchange program with K-State, but this time Tavakkol will spend four to five months, not just two to three weeks.
"My German skills are minimal at best," Tavakkol said, "but the good thing is that at this school, all the instruction is in English." He'll be teaching in Viadrina's international business administration program, which uses English exclusively.
Tavakkol is one of 800 educators to receive a grant this year from the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, which administers the Fulbright program for the U.S. Department of State. Thirty other U.S. scholars of business administration will teach their specialties at institutions across the globe next year.
"I am so pleased that the Fulbright scholarship board has recognized the exceptional merit of Dr. Tavakkol," said Yar Ebadi, dean of the college. "I am confident that during Dr. Tavakkol's Fulbright experience in Germany, he will enhance international understanding among his colleagues. As a Fulbright scholar, he will be an outstanding ambassador for Kansas State University and the College of Business Administration."
Frankfurt on the Oder is much smaller and farther east than the German financial center of Frankfurt on the Main. It has 60,000 inhabitants and lies on the Oder River, which marks the border with Poland.
In addition to his earlier stints at Viadrina, Tavakkol has been a visiting scholar at Cambridge University in England. He is K-State's Mark R. Truitt Professor of Business.