U. David Park, assistant professor of entrepreneurship in Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management, was honored as one of the Poets&Quants top 40 under 40 MBA professors. This is the 10th edition of their annual recognition, whose goal remains unchanged; to identify and celebrate the most talented young professors currently teaching in business programs around the world.
Whitman Assistant Professor David Park with students
At the Whitman School, Park teaches Introduction to Entrepreneurship: How to Launch a Startup, where he uses his entrepreneurial experiences and research to make the subject relatable and easier to learn.
Park was nominated as a top MBA professor based on his talent, caring dedication and teaching methods. He was widely supported by his peers and students, past and present.
As one nominator related to Poets&Quants, “Professor Park is one of the most memorable educators in my life. He cared about his students as whole people; he cared that we understood the content and that he also understood us as individuals. By caring to understand what motivated each of us, he was able to create an adaptable pedagogy for his teaching and offered multiple ways of understanding a problem. In my case, the complex financial model could become a poetic story that brought the issue to life and stuck in my brain. Six years after being his student…I still feel inspired to nominate him because I still feel his impact as someone who embodies the ‘Poets&Quants’ energy.”
Park was also the winner of several teaching awards and recognitions while at the University of Washington, where he completed his Ph.D., including the Star Teacher Award and the Ph.D. Program Teaching Award. Before joining academia, he co-founded a high-tech startup and served as a Marine Corps officer.
“Congratulations to Professor Park for this outstanding achievement. It speaks volumes about his dedication to his students, as well as his research that has been published in top journals. We are glad to have him in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises,” says Todd Moss, chair of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises and associate professor of entrepreneurship.
There were more than 2,240 nominations for nearly 140 individual professors in this year’s ranking. The Poets&Quants editorial staff evaluates each nominee on teaching (given a 70% weight) and research (given the remaining 30% weight). For teaching, they consider the nominations received—both quality and quantity. For research, the volume and impact of the professor’s scholarly work is considered.
