UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- An anonymous donor has committed a gift of $334,000 to establish the Dr. John Coyle Early Career Professorship in Supply Chain in honor of John Coyle, professor emeritus of business administration and director of corporate sponsors for the Center for Supply Chain Research. With matching funds from the Penn State Faculty Endowment Challenge, the total endowment is worth $500,000.

Early Career Professorships are granted to promising young faculty who have completed their terminal degrees within the last decade. The professorships provide funding to support these faculty in their research and teaching at a critical point in their early careers.

“Early Career Professorships are powerful tools for recruiting faculty members with the kind of potential to perform groundbreaking work in their disciplines,” said Charles H. Whiteman, John and Becky Surma Dean of Smeal. “As the field of supply chain continues to grow and evolve, fostering faculty development in this area is more crucial than ever.”

This is the second professorship to be created in honor of Coyle, who has been a member of the Smeal faculty since 1961. In his more than 50 years at the college, Coyle has served in a number of administrative positions in addition to his teaching responsibilities, including department head, assistant dean, senior associate dean and executive director of the Center for Supply Chain Research.

“I am really honored by this special recognition,” said Coyle. “I’m hopeful that the professorship will encourage a young faculty member in supply chain to grow his or her career here at Smeal.”

A prolific researcher, Coyle has authored more than 100 publications on topics related to supply chain. He has also received numerous Penn State awards for teaching excellence and advising, including the Lion’s Paw award, for outstanding service to the University, in 2004.

Well-known to the supply chain community outside Penn State as well, Coyle has received the Council of Logistics Management’s Distinguished Service Award (1991), the Philadelphia Traffic Club’s Person of the Year Award (2003) and the Eccles Medal from the International Society of Logistics for his contributions to the Department of Defense (2004).

Coyle currently serves on the boards of three logistics and supply chain service companies and the advisory board of the National Logistics and Distribution Conference. He also continues to be active in teaching in the Penn State Executive Education programs.

Coyle earned his doctorate from Indiana University, and also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Penn State.

The Faculty Endowment Challenge offers donors an opportunity to leverage a 1:2 match from the University for gifts creating new Early Career Professorships in any of Penn State’s academic units. These awards rotate every three years to a new recipient in the first 10 years of his or her academic career, providing seed money for innovative research projects and flexible funding for new approaches to teaching. The endowments typically require a minimum commitment of $500,000, but through the Faculty Endowment Challenge, donors may establish new Early Career Professorships for any of the University’s colleges or campuses with a commitment of $334,000. The University will commit the remaining 1/3 of the necessary funds, approximately $166,000, from unrestricted endowment resources, ensuring support for rising faculty stars.

The Dr. John Coyle Early Career Professorship in Supply Chain will help the Smeal College of Business to reach its goals in For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students. This University-wide effort is directed toward a shared vision of Penn State as the most comprehensive, student-centered research university in America. The University is engaging Penn State's alumni and friends as partners in achieving six key objectives: ensuring student access and opportunity, enhancing honors education, enriching the student experience, building faculty strength and capacity, fostering discovery and creativity, and sustaining the University's tradition of quality. The campaign's top priority is keeping a Penn State degree affordable for students and families. The For the Future campaign is the most ambitious effort of its kind in Penn State's history, with the goal of securing $2 billion by June 30, 2014.