RICHARDSON , Texas (Sept. 2, 2005) – One of The University of Texas at Dallas’ most highly respected professors has been awarded top honors from The Ohio State University.

Dr. Frank M. Bass, the Eugene McDermott University of Texas System Professor of Management in UTD’s School of Management, was bestowed with the Honorary Degree, Doctor of Business Administration, during The Ohio State University commencement on Aug. 28. Additionally, the 2005 INFORMS Marketing Science Conference at Emory University held a special conference recently in honor of Professor Bass.


UTD’s Frank Bass was bestowed an honorary Doctor of
Business Administration degree by Ohio State University
president, Dr. Karen Holbrook, on August 28.

“I feel very honored to be recognized in this way,” Bass said. “I was inspired by some truly great people, and I hope that I can do the same for others.”

Bass was an associate professor of Business Organization at Ohio State from 1957 to 1961. The honorary degree was awarded in recognition of his outstanding achievements, with school officials noting that he is “a prolific researcher, dedicated teacher and effective mentor [who is] without peer in sharing knowledge with subsequent generations of doctoral students who carry on his legacy of exceptional scholarship.”

This year’s INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences) Marketing Science Conference honored Bass with a dinner and a half-day meeting honoring his achievements. The Conference to Honor Frank M. Bass was held immediately following the annual Marketing Science conference in Atlanta in June. The institute previously had created an award in his name, the Frank M. Bass Dissertation Paper Award, and he won an INFORMS Fellows Award in 2002. 

A leading operations research theoretician and practitioner, Bass earned international recognition with his development of the Bass Model in 1969. That mathematical model was used to predict the sales and life cycles of various consumer products, from color television sets and disposable diapers to digital satellite radio. Two years ago, the research journal Management Science hailed his paper as one of the most-cited research papers in the journal’s 50-year history.

Dr. Hasan Pirkul, dean of the School of Management at UTD, said that Bass’ recognition was well-deserved. “Dr. Bass is widely recognized as one of the founding fathers of the field of Marketing Science, and we are pleased to see him recognized in this way,” Pirkul said.

Bass is a native of Cuero, Texas, and received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois, a M.B.A. degree from The University of Texas at Austin and a B.B.A. degree from Southwestern University. He joined the faculty of Purdue University in 1960 and later became the Loeb Distinguished Professor of Management at Purdue’s Krannert School of Management. Bass has been at UTD since 1982.

About the UTD School of Management

Based on publications in the top 22 business journals spanning all areas of business, The University of Texas at Dallas School of Management faculty ranks 37 th in research productivity among business school faculties nationwide, and U.S. News and World Report ranks the school’s Cohort MBA program among the top 64 full-time MBA programs in the nation and among the top 35 at public colleges and universities. The School of Management is the largest of UTD’s seven schools, with an enrollment that has doubled over the last eight years to more than 4,400 students. The school’s new 204,000-square-foot building features classrooms with state-of-the-art audio and visual equipment, wireless connectivity, video-conferencing facilities, a computer lab, faculty offices, meeting rooms and an executive education center.

About UTD

The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor®, enrolls more than 14,000 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s web site at www.utdallas.edu.