Ted Mock, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, will receive the Accounting Educator of the Year Award from American Accounting Association at its annual meeting in August in Denver.

Ted Mock

"I was pretty shocked," said Mock, who has been teaching and researching accounting for over 40 years. "The competition is very strong and includes nominations from around the world."

Mock's research emphasizes three main aspects of auditing: risk assessment, evidential reasoning, and auditor judgment.

"He's just an inspiration to everybody," said Arnold Wright, the Joseph M. Golemme Research Professor at Northeastern University, who was one of Mock's Ph.D students, and one of five people who nominated Mock for the award. "He taught me the technical details to engage in research and teaching and also the professional values -- being curious, being tenacious and willing to take a position that may be controversial."

Mock earned his Bachelor's and Baster's degrees at The Ohio State University, and his Ph.D at UC Berkeley. He started his academic career at UCLA in 1968. Five years later, he moved across town to the University of Southern California, where he remained until 2008.

He has been a member of the American Accounting Association since 1968, serving as the president of its Auditing Section in 1991-92, and as editor of its main publication of audit research, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory.