Tuesday, September 12 2006 11:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: An Indian American professor of marketing in the University of South California has been honoured by the American Marketing Association (AMA) for his lifetime research in marketing strategy.

Gerard Tellis, the Jerry and Nancy Neely Chair in American Enterprise in the university's Marshall School of Business (MSB), has bagged the 2006 Vijay Mahajan Award for Lifetime Contributions to Marketing Strategy Research, according to a report in the Daily Trojan.

This is the latest in a series of awards that Tellis, who is also director of the university's Center for Global Innovation, has received for his work in his area of specialization.

"I think he's one of the leading experts in the field of innovations, a really creative educator and professor who lends a great deal to Marshall and the university," the report quoted Cherie Scricca, associate dean of the master's program at MSB, as saying.

Born in Mumbai, Tellis did his B.Sc. from the University of Bombay and earned his postgraduate diploma in business administration from the Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur.

He came to the US in 1979 for a PhD in business administration from the University of Michigan. A former brand manager in Johnson & Johnson, Tellis has been in the University of South Carolina for 17 years. "I'll be a professor and a researcher till the day I retire, which I hope is not too soon," he said.

An expert in advertising and promotion, pricing and entry into new markets, Tellis has published widely on these topics in many journals including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Advertising Research, Marketing Science and Sloan Management Review.

Among the many awards received by Tellis are the 2002 Maynard Award for most significant contribution to marketing thought in the Journal of Marketing, the 1998 Odell Award for best paper in the Journal of Marketing Research, and the 1998 Bass Award for best paper in Marketing Science.

He is also the recipient of USC's Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Award in recognition of his book 'Will and Vision: How Latecomers Grow to Dominate Markets', co-authored with Peter Golder.

The Mahajan award is named after another Indian American marketing professor, Vijay Mahajan, who is the John P. Harbin Chair in Business at the University of Texas at Austin.

AMA instituted the award in 2000 to honour Mahajan's career contributions and advancements in marketing strategy.

Past recipients include professors from Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley.