Section Awards

The SET section regularly makes awards to recognize important contributions to the fields of interest of the section.

A number of these awards are made annually.

All awards, with the exception of special recognition and service awards, are made by the respective Award Committee from nominations made by section members. Announcements for these nominations are made to all members via email.

To see further details on the following nominated awards follow the relevant links:

Outstanding Dissertation Award

Outstanding Researcher Award

Outstanding Educator Award

Service and Special Awards

Periodically the section also issues special awards and service awards to recognize various significant contributions to the successful operation of the section. These awards are not made annually and are at the sole determination of the Executive of the section however, members are encouraged to make proposals for special or service awards to the President if they feel such awards are justified for outstanding members of the section.

Outstanding Dissertation Award

The SET Section periodically (usually annually) awards the SET Outstanding Dissertation Award. The award is to recognize outstanding dissertations in the fields of strategic and emerging technologies in the accounting discipline.

For the purposes of this award, Strategic and Emerging technologies include (among others):artificial intelligence (including cognitive computing, knowledge-based systems, neural networks, heuristic problem solving, expert systems, case-based reasoning, machine learning, natural language processing, intelligent databases, intelligent agents, and intelligent devices), information system security, image processing, communications technologies, wireless connectivity, the Internet of things, ERP systems, workflow technology, private networks, XBRL, XML, data mining, group technologies, continuous assurance services, big data, data analytics, text analytics, voice recognition, and interactive multimedia.

The winner of SET Outstanding Dissertation Award will be presented with a plaque at the Annual SET Section Business meeting, held at the American Accounting Association’s annual meeting.

An abstract of the winning dissertation will be published in the SET Newsletter and on the SET Section website.

An entry may be nominated either by the student who wrote the dissertation or by one or more members of their dissertation committee.

The entry cannot be simultaneously submitted for similar awards by other Sections of the AAA.

Submission requirements:

• Dissertation topic dealing with strategic or emerging technologies in accounting.
• Dissertation completed between January 1 and December 31 of the year preceding the award
• Letter signed by the dissertation chairperson stating that the dissertation was completed and accepted by the degree granting institution during the above period
• A nominating letter stating why the dissertation deserves special recognition
• An extended abstract of the dissertation (in PDF format). The extended abstract should focus on the aim, motivation, and significance of the research; and include a summary of the methodology, statistical analysis (as appropriate), results, limitations, and future research questions.
• The dissertation (in PDF format)

Call for Nominations:

Please send your nomination (as an attachment to an email)  by March 1, annually to the Chair of the Committee for this award:

Previous Outstanding Dissertation Award winners

(click on each name highlighted to see the abstract of their dissertation)

• 2023 - Hujue Kelly Duan, The Application of Exogenous Data and Emerging Technologies in Accounting and Auditing
• 2022 - Sheng-Feng Hsieh, "Three Essays on Cryptocurrency" and 
• 2022 - Ivy Wambani Munoko, "The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Auditing and Forensics"
• 2021 - Not presented
• 2020 - Andrea M. Rozario, "Three Essays on Audit Innovation: Using Social Media Information and Disruptive Technologies to Enhance Audit Quality"
• 2019 - Feiqi Huang, "Three Essays on Emerging Technologies in Accounting"
• 2018 - Deniz Appelbaum, "Pubic Auditing, Analytics, and Big Data in the Modern Economy"
• 2017 - Kyunghee Yoon, "Three Essays on Unorthodox Audit Evidence"
• 2016 - Yu-Tzu Chang, "What do Auditors Promise their Governmental Audit Clients? What do Governmental Audit Clients Want? Audit Proposal Evidence from Governmental Audit Procurement Processes"
• 2015 –Qi Liu, Rutgers University, "The Application of Exploratory Data Analysis in Auditing"
• 2014 - Jeff Reinking, University of Central Florida, "The Diffusion of Digital Dashboards: An Examination of Dashboard Utilization and the Managerial Decision Environment"
• 2013 - Danielle Lombardi, Rutgers University, "Using an expert system to de-bias auditor judgment: An experimental study."
• 2012 - Dr. Yong Bum Kim, Ramapo College, "Continuous Monitoring: Macro- and Micro-level Control"
• 2011 - Dr. Sunita Goel, University at Albany, SUNY, "Qualitative Information in Annual Reports & the Detection of Corporate Fraud: A Natural Language Processing Perspective"
• 2010 - Frederik Gailly, Ghent University, "Operationalization of Business Ontologies: Representation, Formalization and Application"
• 2009 - Award not given
• 2008 - Maciej Piechock, Freiberg University of Technology, "XBRL Financial Reporting Supply Chain Architecture"
• 2005 - Shirley Hunter, Murray State University, "The impact of the Internet on the market valuation of emerging market firms: A longitudinal study, 1991--2001"
• 2007 -Jia Wu, Rutgers University, "Continuous tests of details and analytical procedures in continuous auditing"
• 2006 -Mark Cecchini, University of Florida, "Quantifying the Risk of Financial Events Using Kernel Methods and Information Retrieval"

Outstanding Researcher Award

The Outstanding Researcher Award is given in recognition of a researcher for their outstanding published research in the field of strategic and emerging technologies. The winner of this award is honored with a plaque usually presented at the Annual SET Section Business Meeting.

The primary criteria for the award are:

1. Impact of the research on the field of SET
2. Relevance to the larger accounting community
3. Originality and innovation of the research

Call for Nominations:

Please send your nomination (as an attachment to an email) by March 1 annually to the Chair of the committee for this award:

Selection process for the award:

• The committee chair should receive the nomination by the deadline.
• To be eligible for consideration, the nominee must be a current member of the AAA.
• A member of the SET Section must nominate the individual.
• he nominating letter must include a statement as to why the individual is nominated and an assessment of the individual's research (which is broadly defined and can include peer-reviewed books, monographs, and journal articles relating to research in the field of SET).
• SET section officers and award committee members are ineligible for the award

Previous Outstanding Researcher Award Winners

• 2023 - Jun Dai, Michigan Technological University
• 2022 - Daniel E. O'Leary
• 2021 - David A. Wood
• 2020 - award not given
• 2019 - Ingrid Fisher
• 2018- Srinivasan Ragothaman
• 2017 - Richard B. Dull
• 2016 - Daniel O'Leary
• 2015 - award not given
• 2014 - award not given
• 2013 - Jagdish Pathak
• 2012 - Guido Geerts
• 2011 - Severin Grabski
• 2010 - Andreas Nicolaou
• 2009 - Murphy Smith
• 2008 - Vicky Arnold
• 2007 - Bill McCarthy
• 2006 - Stewart Leech
• 2005 - Roger Debreceny
• 2004 - Andrew Lymer
• 2003 - Steve Sutton
• 2002 - Ram Sriram
• 2001 - Alex Kogan
• 2000 - Amelia Baldwin
• 1999 - award not given
• 1998 - Miklos Vasarhelyi
• 1997 - Carol Brown
• 1996 - Raj Srivastava
• 1995 - Dan O'Leary
• 1994 - Barbro Back

Outstanding Educator Award

The Outstanding Educator Award is given in recognition of an educator for their outstanding education contribution in the field of strategic and emerging technologies. The winner of this award is honored with a plaque usually presented at the Annual SET Section Business Meeting.

The primary criteria for the award are:

1. Educational impact made by the individual on the field of SET
2. Originality and innovation of the educational contributions
3. Contribution to the larger AIS and IS communities

Call for Nominations

Please send your nomination (as an attachment to an email) by March 1 annually to the Chair of the committee for this award:

Selection process for the award:

• The committee chair should receive the nomination by the deadline.
• To be eligible for consideration, the nominee must be a current member of the AAA.
• A member of the SET Section must nominate the individual.
• The nominating letter must include a statement as to why the individual is nominated and an assessment of the individual's educational contributions.
• SET section officers and award committee members are ineligible for the award.

(NB. - Educational contribution is broadly defined and not limited to any type of teaching contribution.)

Previous Outstanding Educator Award Winners

• 2023 - David Wood
• 2022 - A. Faye Borthick
• 2021 - Rob Nehmer
• 2020 - Daniel E. O'Leary
• 2019 - Deniz Appelbaum
• 2018 - Brigitte Muehlmann
• 2017 - Bonnie Morris
• 2016 - Amelia Baldwin
• 2015 - J. Efrim Boritz
• 2014 - Miklos Vasarhelyi
• 2013 - Clyde Stambaugh
• 2012 - Steve Sutton
• 2011 - no award given
• 2010 - Severin Grabski
• 2009 - Skip White
• 2008 - Bill McCarthy
• 2007 - Carol Brown
• 2006 - Margarita Lenk
• 1995 - Alan Sangster
• 2005 - Saeed Roohani
• 2004 - Stewart Leech
• 2003 - Bob Jensen
• 2002 - L. Murphy Smith
• 2001 - Bob Michaelsen
• 2000 - Marilyn Greenstein
• 1999 - no award given
• 1998 - Jagdish Gangolly
• 1997 - Enrique Bonson
• 1996 - Dan O'Leary

Previous Special and Service Award Recipients

• 2023 - Distinguished Service Award - not presented
• 2023 - Outstanding Service Award - Daniel O'Leary
• 2022 - Distinguished Service Award - Hussein Issa
• 2022 - Outstanding Service Award - Brigitte Muehlmann
• 2022 - Outstanding Service Award - Ingrid Fisher
• 2021 - Distinguished Service Award - Scott L. Summers
• 2020 - Distinguished Service Award - Robyn L. Raschke
• 2017 - Distinguished Service Award - Barbara Lamberton
• 2017 - Outstanding Service Award - Daniel O'Leary
• 2016 - Outstanding Service Award - L. Murphy Smith
• 2016 - Outstanding Service Award - Robyn Raschke
• 2016 - Outstanding Service Award - Guido Geerts
• 2016 - Distinguished Service Award - Cheryl Dunn
• 2015 - Outstanding Service Award - Alexander Kogan
• 2015 - Distinguished Service Award - Nancy Uddin
• 2014 - Special Award for Lifetime Contributions to the SET Section - Carol Brown, Research Workshop founder
• 2014 - Special Award for Lifetime Contributions to the SET Section - Ed Blocher, Section founder
• 2014 -Distinguished Service Award - Brigitte W. Muehlmann
• 2013 - Distinguished Service Award - Ingrid E. Fisher
• 2012 - Distinguished Service Award - Graham Gal
• 2011 - Distinguished Service Award - Stewart Leech
• 2009 - Distinguished Service Award - Carol Brown and Amelia Baldwin
• 2007 - Distinguished Service Award - Severin Grabski
• 2004 - Distinguished Service Award - Alan Sangster
• 2002 - Distinguished Service Award - Amelia Baldwin
• 2001 - Distinguished Service Award - Marilyn Greenstein
• 2000 - Distinguished Service Award - Carol Brown
• 1999 - Distinguished Service Award - Dan O'Leary
• 1998 - Distinguished Service Award - Alex Kogan
• 1995 - Special Service Award - Amelia Baldwin
• 1994 - Special Service Award - Carol Brown
• 1994 - Special Founders Award - Ed Blocher