Spectrum - Volume 21 Issue 13 November 19, 1998 - Sumichrast appointed associate dean

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Sumichrast
appointed
associate dean

By Sookhan Ho

Spectrum Volume 21 Issue 13 - November 19, 1998

The Pamplin College of Business has appointed Robert T. Sumichrast as associate dean for graduate and international programs.
Sumichrast, professor of management science and information technology, joined the college in 1984 after earning a Ph.D. from Clemson University. He has been teaching and conducting research in decision support systems applications in production and operations scheduling. He earned college and university certificates for teaching excellence, and was appointed to the University Academy of Faculty Service in 1994.
A fellow of the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS), Sumichrast has been active in APICS and other professional associations. He served as president of the Southwest Virginia Chapter of APICS and as president of the Southeastern Chapter of INFORMS.
He has been a consultant for several corporations and has published articles in numerous professional journals, including Decision Sciences , The Journal of Management Information Systems , and The International Journal of Production Research . He is the author of Decision Support Tools , a book and software package, and has served as an editor for Computers and Operations Research , Benchmarking , and the Southern Business and Economic Journal .
Sumichrast will direct the college's graduate programs, in which about 320 students are enrolled for MBA, master's of accountancy, and Ph.D. studies. The college has 270 part-time MBA students at Virginia Tech's Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church and another 110 part-time MBA students in distance-learning programs at 10 sites across the state.
Sumichrast will also oversee Pamplin's international programs. Through scholarship assistance, the college offers opportunities for study abroad to more students every year than any other business school in the state. About 175 students participated in seven faculty-led trips to Asia and Europe last year. The college offers a global business minor, one of the first in the nation to require an experience abroad. It also offers a fall-semester, seven-class program in finance, management, and marketing for about 30 students at Virginia Tech's Center for European Studies and Architecture in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland.
Sumichrast, who had been serving as interim associate dean since this summer, succeeds business-law professor Janine Hiller, who returned to full-time teaching and research in the Department of Finance.