The Steven A. Denning Award for Global Engagement recognizes a Georgia Tech faculty member who has demonstrated sustained outstanding achievement and commitment to the advancement of the Institute’s global engagement. The award includes a $5,000 stipend. This program is funded through the generous support provided in the establishment of the Steven A. Denning Chair in Global Engagement.

This award seeks to recognize a tenured or tenure-track faculty member who has made a significant and sustainable impact in one or more of the following areas:

- Promoting the recognition of Georgia Tech in other countries
- Advancing research, education, and economic development engagement at the international level
- Enriching the experiences of international students or scholars
- Incorporating global perspectives in teaching or international components into the curriculum
- Giving of their time and influence to organize and/or promote international events, visitors, or other international exchanges at Georgia Tech
- Creating new ideas, structures, procedures, or products which promise to eliminate international inequalities, to promote global cooperation, or to foster respect for human dignity among nations and peoples of the world.

2016 Recipients 

Drs. Pinar Keskinocak, and Julie Swann, Professors in the Stewart School of Industrial Engineering, co-founders (together with former ISyE faculty member Dr. Ozlem Ergun, who is now at Northwestern University) and co-directors of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems (HHS).

Drs. Pinar Keskinocak and Julie Swann have built an outstanding portfolio of global outreach, education, and research activities through the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems (HHS).  Recently named the first Interdisciplinary Research Center (IRCs) at Georgia Tech, this center touches on disaster mitigation and planning, basic humanitarian needs such as food or water, and health systems including healthcare delivery, disaster prevention or management, and public policy.  The global visibility that HHS has brought to GT is substantial and far-reaching, and includes an internationally renowned annual conference on Health and Humanitarian Logistics, a professional education certificate program, and a variety of project-based courses that bring a global perspective to degree- based students.  It has impacted hundreds of students, faculty and organizations on a global scale.

2015 Recipient 
Professor John McIntyre, Professor in the Scheller College of Business, and Executive Director of the Georgia Tech’s Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER).

Dr. McIntyre is founding Director of the Georgia Tech CIBER, Professor of management in the Scheller College of Business, with a courtesy appointment in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs.  Since 1993, Dr. McIntyre has been a major force driving the internationalization of Georgia Tech, leading the GT-CIBER center for more than twenty years, and winning again in 2014 another four-year renewal as of one of 17 national centers of excellence funded by the U.S. Department of Education.  Last year, half of CIBERs around the nation lost their funding due to extreme budgetary cut backs by the federal funding agencies for international education funds.  However, Dr. McIntyre tireless efforts secured another four year of funding for GT-CIBER, to continue the exchange partnership with more than 20 universities around the globe, and strengthen international collaborations for faculty and students (undergraduate and graduate) and grow the global business ecosystem of Metro Atlanta. GT-CIBER has positively impacted thousands of students on campus. Dr. McIntyre was instrumental in helping frame the International Plan and supporting the LBAT program.  In the past few years, Dr. McIntyre also created and developed the Georgia Tech Global Business Forum, the ChinaGoesGlobal consortium and annual research conference, the Research Symposium on Globalization of Business Higher Education, and co-created the US-India Business Forum, the education and business community to international economic and business opportunities. Dr. McIntyre has raised significant competitive grants that have enhanced the international visibility of Georgia Tech, including: providing seed grants and various summer support, establishing over 20 Georgia Tech international-related courses in various disciplines, creating innovative undergraduate partnerships and programs that include foreign languages and global economics, supporting students for study or work abroad. Dr. McIntyre’s impact on the internationalization of Georgia Tech has been sustained and profound.

2014 Recipient 
Professor Michael L. Best, Professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs (Ivan Allen College) and the School of Interactive Computing (College of Computing).

Dr. Best’s is a scholar at the intersection of information and communications technology (ICT) and international development (ID), using engineering, design, social science and public policy to tackle issues of post-conflict reconstruction, ICT policy, innovation and entrepreneurship, and civic engagement most particularly in Africa.  Dr. Best and his team have developed technological platforms that have a true societal impact in countries such as Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. For instance, when violence erupted in northern Nigeria after the Presidential election, people in the Georgia Tech situation room responding to reports flagged by the software were able to contact personnel from public safety agencies who coordinated the response.  Dr. Best has also been instrumental in bringing a number of senior officials from African countries to our Atlanta campus, including Ministers and, most notably, the President of Liberia. Dr. Best is actively engaged in service activities at Georgia Tech related to Global Engagement: he is a faculty advisor to the African Student Association on campus, and leader of the faculty task force on Africa. His efforts have clearly enhanced the worldview of his students and the global visibility of Georgia Tech. 

2013 Recipient

Congratulations to Dr. Abdallah Ougazzaden, winner of the 2013 Denning Faculty Award for Global Engagement. Dr. Ougazzaden is the Director of the International Join Research Lab UMI2958 Georgia Tech-CNRS, Director of Georgia Tech-Lorraine, and Co-President of Institut Lafayette. He is also a professor of Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech. 

2012 Recipient

Congratulations to Dr. G. Tong Zhou, who was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Steven A. Denning Faculty Award for Global Engagement.  A faculty member in the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech since 1995, Dr. Zhou’s research interests include the general areas of statistical signal processing and communications. Since 2005, she has played an instrumental role in establishing Georgia Tech’s collaborative education programs in Shanghai, China and currently serves as the Director of Georgia Tech-Shanghai.