School of Information Sciences

Alumni receive Up and Comer Awards

Four iSchool alumni have received the Up and Comer Award from ATG Media. Sarah E. Crissinger (MS '15), Hailley Fargo (MS '16), Maoria Kirker (MS '11), and Katrina Spencer (MS '16) are among the twenty individuals who were selected for the award, which is intended for early-career librarians and information professionals.

ATG Media is the umbrella group that includes the Charleston Conference, Against the Grain, and a new series of short, open access ebooks titled "Charleston Briefings: Trending Topics for Information Professionals." The 2017 Up and Comers will be profiled in the December/January issue of Against the Grain and featured in a series of scheduled podcast interviews that will be posted on ATGthePodcast.com

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

New multi-institutional project to use AI to represent past historical periods

A new project led by a team of researchers from four universities aims to create and evaluate language models that represent past historical periods. The project, "Artificial Intelligence for Cultural and Historical Reasoning," was recently selected for a 2025 Humanities and AI Virtual Institute (HAVI) award from Schmidt Sciences. The $800,000 grant will be split among four institutions: Cornell University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, The University of British Columbia, and McGill University. Professor Ted Underwood will serve as the principal investigator for the portion of the project at Illinois.

Ted Underwood

Spectrum Scholar Spotlight: Mariana Guerrero

Eight iSchool master's students have been named 2025–2026 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School's scholars. MSLIS student Mariana Guerrero earned a bachelor's degree in Spanish language and literature from Rockford University.

Mariana Guerrero

ISAA seeks nominations for annual awards

The iSchool Alumni Association (ISAA) is seeking nominations for three distinguished awards. The awards are given annually at the iSchool alumni reception held at the American Library Association conference. The deadline for nomination is April 1, 2026.

Alma Mater on a summer's day.

Raji selected for IAPP Westin Scholar Award

PhD student Mubarak Raji has been selected as an IAPP Westin Scholar Award honoree for the 2025-2026 academic year. The annual awards were created by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) to support students who are identified as future leaders in the field of privacy and data protection. Honorees receive a $1,000 cash award; two years of membership with the IAPP; three complimentary exams for IAPP certifications (CIPP, CIPM, CIPT); and unlimited access to online training for the recipient's selected IAPP certification exams.

Mubarak Raji headshot

Illinois Cyber Security Scholarship Program extended with $513k award

The National Science Foundation has extended the Illinois Cyber Security Scholarship Program (ICSSP) for one year with an award of $513,000, continuing support for students in The Grainger College of Engineering's Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering programs and master's students in the School of Information Sciences to study cybersecurity.

Masooda Bashir

School of Information Sciences

501 E. Daniel St.

MC-493

Champaign, IL

61820-6211

Voice: (217) 333-3280

Email: ischool@illinois.edu

Back to top