People, papers and presentations

Sebastien Michenaud, assistant professor of finance at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, and colleagues from HEC Paris, the University of Lugano and Virginia Tech will receive the “Best Paper Award in Corporate Finance” for their joint paper, “Do Analyst Preferences Influence Corporate Policies,” at the Financial Management Association annual meeting in Chicago Oct. 17. In July, they also received the European Financial Management Association annual conference’s “Larry Lang Corporate Finance Best Paper Award” for this paper.

Edwin “Ned” Thomas, the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering, and Rafael Verduzco, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, have been nominated for World Technology Awards, to be announced at the organization’s annual summit Nov. 14-15 in New York City. Thomas has been nominated in the Individual Materials category, and Verduzco for Individual Energy. The awards honor those “doing the most innovative work of the greatest likely long-term significance.”