Frank T. Rothaermel, assistant professor of strategic management at Georgia Tech College of Management, was only one of four young scholars in the United States or Canada to win a 2006 Sloan Industry Studies Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Engaged in groundbreaking research of the complex influences shaping today's industrial enterprises, Sloan Industry Studies Fellows are selected based on their promise to contribute to the advancement of knowledge as well as U.S. industrial development and economic competitiveness. Rothaermel was recognized for his work in the biotechnology industry.

Sloan Industry Fellows, who are free to pursue whatever lines of study are of most interest to them, receive a $45,000 grant for a two-year period.

"I am truly honored and humbled to receive a Sloan Industry Studies Fellowship," Rothaermel says. "I greatly appreciate the recognition of my past work. This generous grant will enable me to continue my quest of understanding the competitive and welfare implications of the life sciences in general and biotechnology in particular."

Sloan Industry Studies Fellowships provide support to junior faculty from a wide array of academic disciplines, including management, economics, engineering and political science. Fellowship candidates, who are nominated by their academic department chairs, other senior scholars, or business executives, must have strong partnerships with people in their chosen industries.

Other 2006 Industry Studies Fellows include Jason Owen-Smith of the University of Michigan, Meredith B. Rosenthal of the Harvard School of Public Health, and Anita L. Tucker of the University of Pennsylvania.

The Sloan Foundation, which began awarding its prestigious Research Fellowships to young scientists in 1955, launched the Industry Studies Fellowships in 2004 to extend the tradition of the nonprofit institution's founder, a renowned industrialist. Alfred P. Sloan Jr., who served as chairman and CEO of General Motors, established the foundation in 1934.

Rothaermel, who joined Georgia Tech in 2003, has published his research in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal, among other journals. Honors won by his research include the Academy of Management's William H. Newman Award and the Strategic Management Society Conference's Best Paper Prize.

Writer: Brad Dixon, College of Management