Economics professor and campus leader Tom Fomby receives SMU Faculty Career Achievement Award
DALLAS (SMU) – SMU’s Tom Fomby, Professor of Economics in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, is the 2021 recipient of the Faculty Career Achievement Award for his contributions to the teaching, scholarship and service missions of the University.
Fomby will be recognized by the SMU Board of Trustees this fall.
“I am truly honored to have been chosen to receive this award. Without the support of my colleagues both within the economics department and outside of it, very few of my accomplishments would have been possible,” Fomby said. “SMU has afforded me the opportunity to achieve my career goals – researching at the highest level, teaching wonderful and talented students, and participating in the shared governance of the university via the Faculty Senate and serving on formative University committees.”
Fomby has been a Professor of Economics at SMU (Southern Methodist University) since 1975. He specializes in the field of econometrics, which applies statistics to economic research topics.
In his time at SMU, he has been involved in all University enterprises: research, publications, presentations at professional conferences, directing numerous doctoral dissertations, teaching advanced analytics courses and participating in the governance of SMU.
With respect to governance, Fomby has served twice as his department’s chair, on numerous Faculty Senate committees and as president of the Faculty Senate from 1999 to 2000. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees, as well as other Trustee committees, and as a member of various Provost task forces related to the establishment of SMU’s Residential College system, the Data Science Institute and the development of the undergraduate degree in Data Science.
Fomby has published 50 professional articles and has written a leading textbook, Advanced Econometric Methods. Since 1986, he has also served as Senior Co-editor of Advances in Econometrics, which annually publishes papers written by econometrics scholars.
A trailblazing teacher, Fomby founded the Economics Department’s Applied Economics Master’s degree in 1986, making SMU one of the first colleges to have such a program in the country. In 2004, he was the first faculty member to offer a course on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence as it applies to the Social Sciences. This new offering subsequently led to the founding of the Economics Department’s Master of Science in Applied Economics and Predictive Analytics (MSAEPA) in 2013.
Fomby won SMU’s M Award for outstanding service to the University in 2000. He also received the United Methodist Church’s Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award given by the United Methodist Church’s National Board of Higher Education; the SMU Godbey Lecture Series Outstanding Faculty Award; and the Thomas W. Tunks Distinguished University Citizen Award.
He has received the Rotunda Yearbook Outstanding Professor Award, earned the SMU student HOPE Professor Award (Honoring Our Professors’ Excellence) and won the SMU Faculty Club’s Mentor Supereminence Award. From 2009 through 2020, Fomby served in the Provost/Faculty Senate-appointed position of Chief Marshal of Academic Ceremonies, overseeing faculty participation in the six academic ceremonies of the year.
Fomby is the current chair of the Economic Advisory Council to the United Methodist Church’s Council on Finance and Administration in Nashville, Tennessee.
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