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Dilek and Speh to receive Harrison Medallions

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Yildirim Dilek and Thomas Speh

Yildirim Dilek (geology) and Thomas W. Speh (Rees Distinguished Professor of Marketing) each will receive Miami University's prestigious Benjamin Harrison Medallion during May commencement. The announcement was made during faculty assembly April 16.

"Both Dr. Dilek and Dr. Speh achieved global recognition for their exceptional scholarship and their international contributions to their fields," President David Hodge said. "They have had an equally impressive impact on Miami students. Both have won numerous teaching awards and are well known for their mentoring of students."

The Harrison Medallion is presented to members of Miami's faculty or staff who have made outstanding national contributions to education. It is named for the 1852 Miami graduate who was president of the United States from 1889-1893.

Dilek is an internationally recognized authority on studies of the plate tectonic evolution of major mountain belts and ocean basins. He also is a leading authority in the study and understanding of ophiolites (ancient oceanic lithosphere) and their role in geodynamics and orogenesis. He has published more than 120 papers and 11 books.

He was honored with the 2007 Geological Society of America Distinguished Service Award. Dilek was recently elected to a four-year term on the scientific board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He also has been selected as one of the six theme leaders for the International Geoscience Programme Scientific Board in the field of solid earth geophysics.

He has won two fellowships from the Japanese government to do research and give lectures in Japan and was invited to participate in three oceanographic cruises, including an invitation in 2005 to participate in the SHINKAI 6500 dive program - notable because few non-Japanese scientists are invited.

Dilek has been editor-in-chief of the Geological Society of America Bulletin and editor for the Journal of Geoscience Education, Journal of the Geological Society of London, Tectonophysics, The Island Arc, Geology, and Lithos.

At Miami he has served as a faculty teaching associate in CELT and as a mentor for Harrison Scholars. He is recognized on campus for his inquiry-based approach to teaching, which involves international perspective, interdisciplinary activity and experimental learning. Dilek has received the College of Arts and Science Distinguished Educator Award (2002), the University Distinguished Scholar Award (2003), and the E. Phillips Knox Excellence in Teaching Award (2003).

Speh is internationally recognized as a leading scholar in the fields of logistics and supply chain management. He has been invited to speak in at least 17 countries and led delegations of academics and practitioners to both China (2005) and Russia (1987) to assess and make recommendations for improvements to the logistics and supply chain systems of those countries.

He has more than 50 article publications and is a co-author of two well known textbooks. His textbook, Business Marketing Management: A Strategic View of Industrial and Organizational Markets, is the leading business-to-business management text in the U.S. and is in its ninth edition. Further, Speh's model for determining total warehousing/ logistics costs has been adopted by more than 12,000 organizations.

In 2006 Speh was approved by the European Commission to become a member of the BestLog project's Advisory & Communications Board (ACB). The BestLog project is the European Union's largest coordination activity in logistics. In 2007 the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals awarded him the Distinguished Service Award, the association's highest honor. In the mid-80s he served as president of the Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC), where he helped to introduce academic rigor into the warehousing discipline.

In the mid-1990s, Speh joined the Executive Committee of the Council of Logistics Management (CLM), an international organization of 14,000 members. Working with a committee, he helped create an extensive set of logistics teaching materials known as the "Logistics Tool Box" which have been distributed to hundreds of marketing departments in the U.S. He is the only individual to have been president of both CLM and WERC.

Speh has been nominated for the Alumni Association's Effective Teacher Award 13 times and won it in 1987. In 2006 he received the Outstanding MBA Professor award. He has served as assistant dean and associate dean, in two separate terms as chair of the department of marketing, and as creator and director of the Warehousing Research Center.

In the Oxford community he has served as a volunteer in the emergency room of McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital for the last eight years and has been a member of its board of trustees since 2003. He has also worked with Habitat for Humanity and as president and member of the board of directors of the Oxford United Way campaign. He is the sponsor of the Thomas Speh Fund with the Oxford Community Foundation, helping to support the speech and hearing needs of the uninsured.

Date Published: 04/24/2008
Volume: 27 Number: 20