Summer 2005
PEOPLE
Professor Receives Fulbright Scholar Award
By Mary E. McCrank
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Associate Professor of Finance Yanxiang “Anthony” Gu has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach and conduct research in China during the 2005-06 academic year.
Gu, who will leave for China in early June, received a letter in early April from the William J. Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board confirming his award. His yearlong Fulbright assignment at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics begins in the fall. As part of his Fulbright Scholar grant, Gu will lecture about futures and options, fixed incomes, and market and securities. In addition, he will collect data on the housing and stock markets. He is traveling to China early to spend the summer serving as a senior financial economist at the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator William J. Fulbright of Arkansas, the program’s purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and other countries. The Council for International Exchange of Scholars administers the award, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
College officials are thrilled for Gu, who joined the Geneseo faculty in 1999 and is the third faculty member within the past decade to be selected as a Fulbright scholar.
“I was extremely pleased to hear that Dr. Gu has been awarded a Fulbright to teach and complete research in China. This will allow him to extend his teaching expertise in investments, futures and options, and international finance to Chinese students. His Fulbright will also include conducting research on the Chinese stock market,” said Provost Katherine S. Conway-Turner. “This is a significant award, and it will have immeasurable gains for Dr. Gu, the Jones School of Business and the College. I look forward to him sharing the insights he will gather when he returns to campus.”
Gu has compiled a record of research and publication that is remarkable both for quantity and quality. Since the mid-1990s, he has had 35 articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Several of his papers have appeared in top-tier journals, including the Journal of Financial Research, the Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Applied Financial Economics, Journal of Real Estate Research and Real Estate Review. Gu has also attained an international reputation through his numerous conference presentations in Canada, Europe and Asia, and his research on Chinese financial markets.
In addition to his scholarly work, Gu assisted with a successful grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Education to fund a Center for International Business at Geneseo, and he serves as the advisor to Beta Gamma Sigma, the national honor society in the School of Business.
Gu has taught financial management, futures and options, international finance, investments, money and banking, business statistics, and microeconomics. His research interests are in the impact of information technology on market behavior and changes in market efficiency, housing market and policy, IPOs and ADRs, option to develop land, and exotic options.
He has received the 2003 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Activities, Hurrell/McNaron Scholarly Presentation Award, the Allied Academies Distinguished Research Awards and Honorable Research Award, and Midwest Academy of Finance and Insurance Distinguished Paper Award.
Gu received his master’s degree and Ph.D. in finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he gained experience training Chinese bankers, executives and government officials.
He also said he is thankful to his colleagues and college leaders for their support. An American citizen, Gu said he feels honored to be awarded the Fulbright and looks forward to serving as a liaison between the U.S. and China.
“It’s an honor, but you are a country builder,” said Gu. “It’s a prestigious thing, but you are serving the purpose of the American people.”
Gu said the housing market in China is increasing rapidly and that numerous major U.S. corporations are creating jobs in China, including General Electric Co., Ford Motor Co., Wal-Mart and tobacco companies who are training farmers how to grow tobacco to be sold to an expanding Chinese market.
“The big names — you name it, they’re there,” he said. “The change is really amazing.”
With an unemployment rate estimated at 10 percent — but in reality hovering around 20 percent — China is rapidly developing, according to Gu. But economists don’t like fast growth because it can be followed by a great depression, he said.
“In the developing countries, it’s much more difficult to establish,” said Gu. “If you have high unemployment, there is political instability.”
In addition, the Chinese stock market was volatile in the 1990s. Gu will help Chinese officials solve answers to theoretical questions in an effort to turn that around.
In June, Gu will visit his family, including his mother, who lives in Shenyang. She was diagnosed with lung cancer last October and given a short time to live. Gu said he was ready to visit his mother immediately after her phone call but that his mother said to stay put at Geneseo.
“My mother said, ‘Don’t leave your students,’” said Gu, who stayed and was overwhelmed at the support he has received from his students.
“They promised to pray for my mother,” he said. “That’s quite something to me, for students to say to their professor they’ll pray for your mother.”
Gu’s 15-year-old son, George, will join him in China this summer.
Geneseo’s other recent Fulbright scholars are Jeff Koch, professor and chair of the political science and international relations department, who served as a Fulbright Scholar in American politics at East China Normal University in Shanghai, China in 2002-03, and Robert F. Goeckel, professor of political science and coordinator of international relations, who conducted research in Berlin, Germany, as a Fulbright Scholar in 1995-96.