The iSchool is pleased to announce that Professor Dong Wang has been appointed associate dean for research. In this role, Wang will provide leadership in the support, integration, communication, and administration of the iSchool's research and scholarship endeavors. This includes supervising the iSchool's Research Services unit, supporting the research centers, and assisting faculty in the acquisition of research funding.
"I see my role as a bridge—connecting people, ideas, and research areas across the iSchool to spark new interdisciplinary collaborations and shared intellectual momentum," said Wang. "Supporting research isn't just about resources; it's about building systems and relationships that help faculty and students thrive as our School evolves."
Wang brings years of leadership and deep knowledge of the iSchool to the position. Since joining the iSchool faculty in 2021, he has served on a number of committees, including the iSchool's Doctoral Studies Committee and Research Advisory Committee. He is a faculty affiliate with the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), Information Trust Institute, Illinois Informatics, Center for Social and Behavioral Science (CSBS), and Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB).
"Professor Wang's dedication to the iSchool, collaborative nature, experience in attracting substantial research funding, and campus-wide connections will move our School's research forward in new and exciting ways," said Interim Dean Emily Knox.
Wang's research includes human-centered AI, social sensing, intelligence and computing, and big data analytics. His work has been applied in a wide range of real-world applications such as social network analysis, crowdsourcing, disaster response, education, smart cities, and AI for science. His books include Social Intelligence (Springer, 2025), Social Edge Computing (Springer, 2023), and Social Sensing (Elsevier, 2015). He serves as the director of the Social Sensing & Intelligence Lab.
Wang is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). He serves as an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Big Data, Frontiers in Big Data, and Social Network Analysis and Mining. Other honors include the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, Google Faculty Research Award, and Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award from the U.S. Army Research Office. He holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.