Seven entrepreneurship faculty hire assistants with alumni support

Seven faculty members were honored with awards from the Louis H. Zalaznick Teaching Assistantship program, allowing them to expand their courses or add teaching assistants.

The program, administered by Entrepreneurship at Cornell, was established in 1993 by David W. Zalaznick ’76, a Cornell trustee, and his wife, Barbara ’76, to honor David’s father, Louis. The awards allow faculty affiliated with Entrepreneurship at Cornell to extend their capacity to work with students by providing one or more assistants to help with their courses or course development.

Zalaznick award winners for this year and their projects:

  • John Callister, the Harvey Kinzelberg Director of Entrepreneurship in Engineering, will hire an assistant for his Entrepreneurship for Engineers class.
  • Robert Karpman, adjunct professor of biomedical engineering, will support assistants in his fall classes The Business of Modern Medicine and Entrepreneurship in the Life Sciences.
  • Lisa Nishii, associate professor and chair of ILR International Programs, will hire an assistant for her course Human Resources for Entrepreneurs in Developing Markets, an engaged learning course where students do classroom work at Cornell then travel to Nicaragua to work with local entrepreneurs to help them develop human resource systems.
  • Mona Olsen, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and an Engaged Faculty fellow, will support teaching assistants, supplies, lecturer travel expenses and transcription for her class Foundations of Social Entrepreneurship.
  • Wes Sine, professor of management and organizations, will support teaching assistants and guest speaker expenses for two classes, Strategic Management of Innovation and Technology, and University Technology Commercialization.
  • Mike Timmons, professor of biological and environmental engineering, will hire assistants for his Entrepreneurial Management for Engineers class, which also received an Engaged Curriculum grant. The class is working with a school in Chile to create a functioning aquaponics system to produce vegetables and fish.
  • Bradley Treat, instructor of entrepreneurship, will hire an assistant to explore the 1,002 patents on file at Cornell’s Center for Technology Licensing office for his class Entrepreneurship for Scientists and Engineers, to allow students to build business plans around a Cornell technology.

Media Contact

Joe Schwartz