Robert Knechel

Knechel receives UF research professorship

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Dr. W R Knechel, the Frederick Fisher Eminent Scholar Chair at the Fisher School of Accounting, was awarded a UF Research Foundation Professorship for 2015-18.

Dr. Knechel was one of 34 University of Florida scholars to receive the honor.

UFRF professorships are awarded to tenured faculty members who have a distinguished current record of research that places them among the leaders in their discipline, and an active current research program that is likely to lead to continuing distinction in their field. Candidates, who are nominated by their Department Chairs, are judged on criteria such as publication in leading scholarly journals in the field, monographs or other scholarly works, citation analysis, awards in their field, evidence of consistent external funding and evidence of development of intellectual property.

The professorship includes a $5,000 annual salary supplement and a one-time $3,000 grant.

In addition to teaching auditing and financial reporting in the undergraduate and graduate curriculum, Dr. Knechel serves as the Director of the International Center for Research in Accounting and Auditing at the Fisher School. Dr. Knechel travels extensively throughout the world increasing the global visibility of the ICRAA and the Fisher School, where he has served as a professor since 1981. He holds formal teaching positions at Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium and the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Dr. Knechel has published more than 50 research articles in numerous academic journals including the Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Accounting Organizations and Society, Contemporary Accounting Research, Decisions Sciences Journal, Accounting Horizons and Issues in Accounting Education.

Dr. Knechel was most recently recognized as the American Accounting Association’s (AAA) 2015 Outstanding Auditing Educator. He has also received the Vernon Zimmerman Best Paper Award at the Asia-Pacific Conference on International Accounting Issues (2012), and the Best Manuscript Award at the European Audit Research Network Bi-Annual Conference (2007). Dr. Knechel has also been named the Warrington College of Business Administration’s “Distinguished International Educator Award” multiple times.

Dr. Knechel has served on the editorial boards of some the field’s premier journals including The Accounting Review, the International Journal of Auditing, and Auditing: A Journal of Theory & Practice, where he has served as an Associate Editor and Senior Editor.

Dr. Knechel received his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Delaware in 1977 and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina in 1981.