Smith’s P.K. Kannan Named Distinguished University Professor

Newswise — The University of Maryland has named P.K. Kannan, Dean’s Chair in Marketing Science at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, a Distinguished University Professor, the highest academic honor bestowed on tenured faculty at UMD.

Kannan is internationally recognized for his contributions to marketing modeling, attribution, and digital marketing. He has served as editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Research in Marketing and held leadership roles within the American Marketing Association and INFORMS.

He joins a select group of Smith School faculty who hold the title, including marketing professors Roland Rust and Michel Wedel and finance professor Albert “Pete” Kyle.

The appointment adds to a series of recent honors for Kannan. He was named a 2026 AMA Fellow and, in 2025, was inducted as a Fellow of the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science, a distinction held by only about 40 scholars worldwide. He also received the AMA Tech SIG Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025 and the EMAC Distinguished Marketing Scholar Award in 2024.

Original release: https://www.rhsmith.umd.edu//news/smiths-pk-kannan-named-distinguished-university-professor