The Dean’s Office has announced the awardees of Columbia Business School’s inaugural Summer Research Program, which will run from May 27 to August 4, 2012. The program will provide research support to selected School faculty members who submit proposals for summer research projects. The program will also connect faculty members with research assistants (RAs) — exceptional undergraduate students with quantitative research expertise. The School received about 400 applications from students at top universities wishing to serve as RAs this summer. The faculty proposals were selected based on difficulty level, scope, and intellectual challenge. Student participants were chosen based on a thorough screening mechanism that tested their quantitative research expertise, ability to do independent work, and research potential. This summer's RAs are students from Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University. The 2012 faculty awardees are: -Andrew Ang, Ann F. Kaplan Professor of Business and chair of the Finance and Economics Division, studying mutual fund performance. -Eva Ascarza, assistant professor of marketing, and Oded Netzer, Philip H. Geier Jr. Associate Professor in the Marketing Division, studying customer retention via deals websites. -Omar Besbes, assistant professor of decision, risk, and operations, studying online advertising and online content recommendation systems. -John Donaldson, co-director of the doctoral program and Mario J. Gabelli Professor of Finance, and Nachum Sicherman, professor of finance and economics, studying investors’ utility increments in relation to personal investment account balances. -Laurie Hodrick, A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Business in the Finance and Economics Division and founding director of the Program for Financial Studies, studying excess cash holdings. -Casey Ichniowski, Carson Family Professor of Business and chair of the Management Division, studying the management of sports teams. -Sheena Iyengar, S. T. Lee Professor of Business in the Management Division, studying e-mail relationships with business contacts. -Eric Johnson, Norman Eig Professor of Business in the Marketing Divison; Stephan Meier, Regina Pitaro Associate Professor of Business in the Management Division; and Olivier Toubia, professor of marketing, studying the performance of mortgages via the behavioral economics of borrowers. -Bruce Kogut, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Professor of Leadership and Ethics in the Management Division, and Morten Sorensen, Daniel W. Stanton Associate Professor of Business in the Finance and Economics Division, studying large dynamic network formation in venture capital. -Jonah Rockoff, Sidney Taurel Associate Professor of Business in the Finance and Economics Division, studying a new educational program’s classroom experience and the efficacy of its instructional model. -Stephen Zeldes, Benjamin Rosen Professor of Finance and Economics; Emi Nakamura, David W. Zalaznick Associate Professor of Business in Finance and Economics; and Andreas Mueller, assistant professor of finance and economics, studying aggregate job search effort, adverse selection in credit card lending, and the annuitization of retirement income.