Financial Accounting and Reporting Section
Lifetime Achievement Award

The Financial Accounting and Reporting Section (FARS) of the American Accounting Association (AAA) has established a lifetime achievement award. The purpose of the award is to recognize an individual’s achievements in outstanding thought leadership in financial accounting research over the course of his/her career. The Award will not be given with any specific periodicity but rather when an eligible recipient is identified.

The FARS Steering Board shall be solely responsible for the selection of the Award Recipient(s) using the following selection criteria:

  • Candidates must be viewed as trailblazers, whose research has opened new areas of study and has reshaped the thinking of the academic community in a fundamental way.
  • The candidates’ works that sowed the seeds for award consideration must have been published at least 20 years prior to the year in which the award will be bestowed.
  • Consideration for the award will be based on the cumulative impact the candidates’ works have had and continues to have on academic thought.

A candidate must receive the support of at least 75% of the FARS Steering Board members (11 out of 14 members) to be given the award. The name of any award winner(s) will be announced and the winner(s) will be recognized and presented with a citation at the FARS Midyear Meeting.

Given the listed criteria, the expectation is that the choice of the award winner is likely to be uncontroversial and would be viewed as a celebration of path-breaking contributions to financial accounting research, with the award given only when a candidate meets the criteria. FARS members may submit nominations of candidates meeting the above criteria to the chair of the Lifetime Achievement & PhD Mentoring Awards Committee by March 1. 

The chair of the committee is Peter Demerjian (pdemerj@uic.edu).  Nominated candidates not selected for the award to be given in the following Midyear meeting may be considered by the FARS steering board for a future award.

Lifetime Achievement Award Winners








2020 Professor Jerry Zimmerman, Professor Emeritus, Ronald L. Bittner Professor of Business Administration, University of Rochester
2019 Professor Daniel W. Collins, Henrey B. Tippie Research Chair in Accounting, University of Iowa
2018 Professor Richard Sloan, Professor of Accounting, University of Southern California
2016 Professor Mary E. Barth, Joan E. Horngren Professor of Accounting, Stanford University
2015 Professor Robert E. Verrecchia, Elizabeth F. Putzel Professor of Accounting, University of Pennsylvania
2014 Professor Ray Ball, Sidney Davidson Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting, University of Chicago
2013 Professor William H. Beaver, Joan E. Horngren Professor of Accounting, Emeritus, Stanford University
Professor Ross L. Watts, Erwin H. Schell Professor of Management, Massachusetts of Institute of Technology

President's Letter

Dear FARS Members and Visitors,

The Financial Accounting and Reporting Section represents a diverse group of academics who, using a variety of research and teaching approaches, deepen our understanding of how financial reporting shapes the business world. We aim to advance research, education and professional practice of financial reporting and analysis.

Our Steering Board is responsible for the stewardship of the section. In these uncertain times, FARS’s leadership and its Steering Board are committed to meeting our members’ needs and maintaining the vibrancy of the section. However, to do that, we rely crucially on volunteers. For example, the research coordination of the annual meeting earlier this month reflected the outstanding voluntary efforts of Gauri Bhat and Urooj Khan—our sincere thanks to both of them. That meeting, as well as the very successful midyear meeting in Nashville on January 23–25, 2020, also reflected the combined efforts of hundreds of members, who submitted papers, reviewed submissions, organized sessions, moderated, and presented. Please consider volunteering for the section when our “call for volunteers” comes out later this year.

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Journal

Journal of Financial Reporting

The Journal of Financial Reporting (JFR) is the academic journal of the Financial Accounting and Reporting Section of the American Accounting Association. JFR’s target audience is financial reporting researchers. JFR will publish two regular issues each year. JFR will also occasionally publish themed issues dedicated to studies that launch a new question or move the literature forward in an existing area.

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Research

Call for Papers

FARS and Journal of Financial Reporting Research Methods Virtual Mini-Conference

January 21, 2021

Submission Deadline: October 15, 2020

Accounting Organizations & Society

Conference on Accounting for Sustainability and Climate Change

Fall 2022 - Chicago

Submission Deadline: June 15, 2022

Midyear Meeting

PowerPoint Slides from FASB Update at 2021 FARS Midyear Meeting

Research Objectives:

  • A. to encourage, facilitate, and publicize research in financial accounting and reporting.
  • B. to communicate interests, intentions, and actual work-in-process in the area.
  • C. to identify areas in need of research.
  • D. to provide opportunities for public exposure of research results through AAA meetings (annual, regional, and special meetings devoted solely to financial accounting and reporting) and publications (including working papers and a separate journal for financial accounting and reporting, if warranted).