ANNUAL REPORT - Tennessee Tech University

College NAMES NEW ASSISTANT DEAN
The College of Business has named Dr. R. Nat Natarajan as the new assistant dean of accreditation. In this new role,
his primary focus will be on assurance of the learning area of our AACSB process. The accrediting agency requires
systematic assessment of student learning. Dr. Nat’s experience in quality and processes will help as we prepare for
the next review.
Dr. Nat also serves as the W. Eugene Mayberry Professor of Management in the College of Business at Tennessee
Technological University. He received his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology -
Madras, India; an M.B.A from Indian Institute
of Management - Calcutta; a M.S. in Managerial
Economics and Decision Sciences from the Kellogg
Graduate School of Management at Northwestern
University; and his Ph.D. in Business from the
University of Kansas. He is also certified by APICS,
the association for operations management.
He has published in journals such as the International
Journal of Production Economics, International
Journal of Operations Management, Total Quality
Management, Decision Sciences, Quality Progress,
TQM Magazine, and in the Encyclopedia of
Production and Manufacturing Management. He
has authored and co-authored books, case studies,
and monographs on manufacturing, supply chain
management, quality and performance management.
In a study published in 1993 in the Journal of
Operations Management, he was recognized as
one of the “Top 100 Researchers” in Operations
Management during a five year period. He has
made presentations and participated in numerous
conferences and professional programs in the U.S
and other countries.
He has served as an Examiner for the Malcolm
Baldrige National Quality Award of the U.S. and
for the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence
Award of the State of Tennessee. He has also served as
a member and chair of a national certification committee of APICS. He serves on the editorial board of Quality Management
Journal of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and on the international committee of the National Center for Quality
Management (NCQM) of Mumbai, India. He is a member of APICS, ASQ, Decision Sciences Institute (DSI), and the
Global Manufacturing Research Group (GMRG). He has received several awards for research and overall excellence at
TTU.
14 Annual Report 2008-2009