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according to a study funded by the Rotman International Centre for Pension Management at the Univer- sity of Toronto in Canada. A team of British and American researchers looked at data from Brit- ish pension funds generated between March 1984 and March 2004. In that time period, most funds switched from centralized manage- ment, which assigns a single person to manage a range of asset classes, to decentralized management, which assigns several people to each asset class, as well as multiple specialists within each asset class. Having multiple managers can complicate fund oversight, the researchers say. But they found that decentralization overcame that disad- vantage through superior stock selec- tion. "Pension Fund Performance and Risk-Taking Under Decentral- ized Management" is available at www.rotman.utoronto.ca/icpm under the "Academic Papers" link. the need for nuclear scientists and engineers over the next decade in the energy, environmental, medical, and defense sectors of the nuclear industry. Survey results will be released this spring. n ISLAMIC BANKING CENTERS Two universities are creating cen- ters dedicated to Islamic banking. American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates will be home to a center for Islamic bank- ing and finance. Created with the help of an endowment of AED 30 million (US $8.1 million) provided by the Sharjah Islamic Bank, the center will support instruction, RESEARCH RECOGNITIONS n Last fall, the Operational Research Society (ORS) awarded its 2008 Goodeve Medal to David Ronen, pro- fessor of logistics and operations management at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Ronen received the award in recognition of his appli- cation of quantitative tools and infor- mation technology to solving practi- cal business logistics problems. n An article by Robert Whaley, finance professor at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Manage- ment in Nashville, Tennessee, has received the Best Article award as voted by subscribers of The Journal of Portfolio Management. In the arti- cle, "Understanding the VIX," Wha- ley explained the Chicago Board Option Exchange's volatility index in an attempt to calm the economic turbulence caused by references to research, and outreach activities in the field, regionally and internation- ally. The Aston Business School in Birmingham in the U.K. also is developing an Islamic financial center, with the help of a £1.5 mil- lion (US $2.3 million) grant from Dubai-based Surgi-Tech. The larg- est financial gift to the university, it will be used to develop qualifica- tions, advance research, and design educational programs in the field. n SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE GEM This year, the Global Entrepreneur- ship Monitor (GEM), an annual international report on new global business development, includes its the VIX in financial news coverage. Whaley created the VIX, which pro- vides a real-time measure of investor confidence, in 1993 while working as a consultant for the Exchange. n The Stanford Institute for Eco- nomic Policy Research (SIEPR) has instituted a new prize for individuals who make significant lifetime contri- butions to improving the design and conduct of economic policy. SIEPR has chosen former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker as the first recipient of the SIEPR Prize for Contributions to Economic Policy. Volcker was recognized for his deci- sions during the 1960s and 1970s that changed U.S. monetary policy and broke the inflationary spiral of that era. The SIEPR Prize, which includes an award of $100,000,will be given out every other year. For more information, visit siepr.stanford. edu/siepr_prize_information. first study of social entrepreneur- ship conducted by Siri Terjesen of Indiana University, Rachida Justo of the Instituto de Empresa in Spain, and Jan Lepoutre of Ghent University in Belgium. In 2009, 49 national teams collected data on community, for-profit, or non- profit work with a social purpose. The three authors found that the average rate of social entrepreneur- ship increases slightly with eco- nomic development. "The oppor- tunity cost of social entrepreneurship may be higher in developing coun- tries," says Terjesen. The complete report is available at www.gem consortium.org. n z BizEd MAY/JUNE 2010 67