Selective Investment 1998 Award Recipients

The Ohio State University has committed itself to becoming one of the top ten public universities in the nation within the next 10-20 years. One way that the university has charted to achieve this ambitious goal is through targeted investments in excellence.

The Selective Investment Program will use funds made available to the administration to support the hiring of highly prominent experts in disciplines where Ohio State is already performing excellently. The strategy would be next to extend resources to additional departments, taking advantage of the momentum created by the elevation of the top departments of the university.

As chair of the 1997-1998 Selective Investment Evaluation Committee, first and foremost I would like to acknowledge the invaluable contributions of the committee members: Professors Charles M. Atkinson, Robert W. Brueggemeier, Bunny C. Clark, Liang-Shih Fan, Peter W. Howitt, Brian D. Joseph, Andrew D. Ward, and also the outstanding contribution of our liaison in the Office of Academic Affairs, Vice Provost L. Alayne Parson.

Committee members felt very privileged to be provided with the responsibility of reviewing 21 outstanding proposals from Ohio State's best departments. Unfortunately, the resources are such that not all proposals could be funded.

It was a daunting task to generate recommenda-tions, but we feel strongly that the process could not have been fairer. And, we were delighted to provide the Provost with our official recommendations.