By (October 6, 2008)

Rockefeller College Doctoral Students Win Awards

October 6, 2008 - Two doctoral students from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, Hyunjung Kim and Navid Ghaffarzadegan, garnered honorable mentions and awards in this year's System Dynamics Conference in Athens, Greece.

Kim, a fifth-year student in the doctoral program in public affairs, is from Seoul, South Korea. She received an honorable mention in the Dana Meadows Award and garnered the Lupina Young Researchers Award for her paper, Broadening boundary perception in a multi-organizational context: Study of a community mental health program in New York State. Her research was completed with the New York State Office of Mental Health, in conjunction with Steve Huz of Performance and Outcomes Management of the state Office of Mental Health, and Rod MacDonald, director of Initiative for System Dynamics in the Public Sector.

"Working on a dissertation is a long-term project, and although you work hard every day, you don't see tangible achievements until you are done with it," said Kim. "An award like this gives me a feeling that I am on the right track. I've been working with the best group of people in the field, and I am very thankful that their mentorship led to the award."

Ghaffarzadegan also received an honorable mention in the Dana Meadows Award and garnered the Barry Richmond Award for the paper, Effect of Conditional Feedback on Learning.

A third-year student in the doctoral program in public administration, he is from Tehran, Iran. Prior to UAlbany, Ghaffarzadegan earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and an master's in business administration from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran.

The Dana Meadows Award is given annually for the best paper by a student presented at the annual System Dynamics Conference. The Lupina Young Researchers Award is given to outstanding papers dealing with health-related topics, written by students or recent graduates and presented at the conference.

The Barry Richmond Scholarship Award is presented annually to a deserving systems thinking or system dynamics practitioner whose work demonstrates a desire to expand the field or to apply it to current social issues.