A recent gift to support doctoral research and teaching excellence at the Lundquist College is already producing tangible results.

Since May 2014, the Best Fund has provided $15,000 for annual GTF teaching awards, $4,500 in support for six student-faculty research projects, and $65,000 for 15 conference presentations, attendance at two national workshops, 28 journal submissions, and eight journal acceptances, with most of them coauthored by students and faculty members.

Starting in April 2014, longtime faculty member Roger Best and his wife Robin Best began a trial project with the aim of recognizing excellence in teaching and to encourage and support PhD student research and collaboration with Lundquist College faculty, explained Andrew Verner, director, PhD program in business. The Bests decided to start funding the project the very next month, providing immediate impact to our PhD students.

As a continuation of those efforts, last fall the Bests formalized what will become a $1 million endowment for doctoral research and teaching excellence at the Lundquist College. Best credits his success to seizing the opportunity to publish and collaborate with professors while he was a doctoral student.

From May 2014 to August 2016 the Best fund has already disbursed $85,000.

Our PhD students, alongside Lundquist faculty members, contribute greatly to one of our university's core missions: research. The Bests" gift and others celebrate, reward, and enable the UO's efforts to lead the region and the country as a premier research institution.

In providing incentives for turning this research into conference papers and coauthored journal articles, the awards aim to improve PhD grads" job prospects while also enhancing the reputation of the Lundquist College doctoral program.

Thank you, Robin and Roger Best!

To contribute to the Robin and Roger Best Fund for Doctoral Research and Teaching, contact External Relations at the Lundquist College of Business business.uoregon.edu/give or 541-346-1346.