Gaskin Receives AIS Early Career Award

PROVO, Utah – Dec 17, 2015 – Marriott School information systems professor James Gaskin was recognized for his innovative approach to research by receiving one of the first-ever Association for Information Systems Early Career Awards.

The award honors individuals within seven years of receiving their PhD who have already made outstanding research, teaching or service contributions to the field of information systems. According to the AIS, nominees should be global contributors to the discipline as well as local contributors in the context of their country and region.

“I’m honored to be one of the inaugural recipients of this award,” Gaskin says. “There were many academics who were eligible, so it’s great to be recognized.”

Along with teaching introductory classes in the information systems department, Gaskin is involved in many different fields of research, including human-computer interaction, wearable technologies, organizational genetics, and trust and ethics. One of Gaskin’s current focuses is revolutionizing the way scientific findings are presented, including a recommendation to publish through video in a recent paper that was accepted into the Journal for the Association of Information Systems.

Gaskin is often invited to participate in studies due to his expertise in statistics and is an authority on statistical advice for doctoral students and professors across many countries and disciplines. On his own time, he also runs a YouTube channel currently boasting 1.5 million views where he posts statistics and SEM video tutorials.

“Beyond all of his professional accomplishments, James is just a tremendous person,” says BYU information systems chairman Marshall Romney. “He never hesitates to serve and is extremely innovative in his teaching approach — if it can be improved, he finds a way.”

Gaskin received the award at AIS’s International Conference on Information Systems in Fort Worth, Texas. The conference is the most prestigious gathering of academics and practitioners in the IS discipline and provides a forum for networking and sharing of the latest research ideas. Each year more than 1,000 IS professionals from around the world participate. 

“I’m proud to represent the Marriott School,” Gaskin says. “To some extent, the award recognizes that the quality and quantity of research taking place at BYU is on par with some of the top researching universities in the world.”

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, entrepreneurship, finance, information systems and public management. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,300 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.