Sudha Ram Receives Extraordinary Faculty Award

Sudha Ram, Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of MIS, Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Eller College of Management, was recognized by the UA Foundation with the Extraordinary Faculty Award.

She received the award, which honors a faculty member who brings distinction to the university, at the Eller Alumni Awards Breakfast on November 7. The breakfast was part of the University of Arizona’s 2025 Homecoming Weekend.

“This award is really a testament to the remarkable colleagues and students I’ve been fortunate to collaborate with,” says Ram. “Their creativity, enthusiasm, and support have made this journey both joyful and fulfilling."

The breakfast included various remarks as well as a video featuring Ram, Interim MIS Department Head Matt Hashim, and two of Ram’s former PhD students: Wenli Zhang, who is now an Assistant Professor at Iowa State University, and Vijay Khatri, currently the Tandean Rustandy Endowed Dean in the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado.

“Through her rigorous research, her service to the community, her service to the department—she’s everything you want out of a faculty member in a top-ranked program,” Hashim said in the video.

Ram has been at the University of Arizona since 1985 and has received more than $70 million in research funding. Her research is focused on big data analytics, business intelligence and large scale network science.

An AIS Fellow and an INFORMS ISS Distinguished Fellow, Ram received a Women of Impact Award from the University of Arizona in 2023 and the Association for Information Systems (AIS) Lifetime Achievement LEO Award in 2024.