MS/LIS student Vera Vasileva has been awarded an Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Student Scholarship to participate in the ACRL 2019 conference, which will be held April 10-13 in Cleveland, Ohio. At the conference, Vasileva will attend the presentation of "We Don't Need that Anymore, Exploring the Myths and Realities of the Impact of Digitization on Print Usage," a paper she coauthored with her graduate assistantship supervisor Thomas Teper, associate professor and associate dean of libraries for the University Library.

Eighteen iSchool instructors were named in the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Fall 2018. The rankings are released every semester, and results are based on the Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms maintained by Measurement and Evaluation in the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. Only those instructors who gave out ICES forms during the semester and who released their data for publication are included in the list.

Associate Professor Victoria Stodden has been reappointed as a member of the Advisory Group for the National Academy of Engineering Online Ethics Center (OEC). OEC provides resources for understanding and addressing ethically significant issues in science and engineering, serving those who promote learning and advance the understanding of responsible research and practice.

Four iSchool alumni are included in Library Journal’s 2019 class of Movers & Shakers, an annual list that recognizes fifty professionals who are transforming what it means to be a librarian. Jarrett Dapier (MS '15) and Gwen Evans (MS '02) were honored in the Change Agents category; Heather Thompson (MS '13) was honored in the Educators category; and Anton Chuppin (MS '99) was honored in the Digital Developers category.

MS/LIS student Itzel Jihan has been awarded a scholarship to attend the PyCon 2019 conference, which will be held May 1-9 in Cleveland, Ohio. The conference is the largest annual gathering for the community using and developing the open-source Python programming language. It includes tutorials, talks, events such as a poster session and job fair, and sprints, where developers collaborate on open source projects.

Fayrene Muhammad (MS '01) has been selected as the 2018 winner of the DEMCO/ALA Black Caucus Award for Excellence in Librarianship. The annual award is presented to the librarian who has made significant contributions to promote the status of African Americans in the library profession. These contributions may include, but are not limited to, research and scholarship, recruitment, professional development, planning or implementation of programs, or advocacy.

Professor and Executive Associate Dean Linda C. Smith (MS '72) has been named an Illinois Library Luminary by the Illinois Library Association (ILA). This distinction honors individuals whose efforts have made a significant contribution to Illinois libraries. Smith's nearly 50-year career began when she came to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Graduate School of Library Science (now the School of Information Sciences) in 1971 shortly after graduating summa cum laude in physics and mathematics from Allegheny College (PA). She received her MS from Illinois in 1972 and spent a year at Washington University School of Medicine Library in St. Louis as a trainee in computer librarianship. She then earned an MS in information and computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1975 and a PhD from Syracuse University, School of Information Studies in 1979. 

Samantha Walkow, an Informatics PhD student advised by Assistant Professor Matthew Turk, has been accepted into the Mozilla Open Leaders Program. The 14-week mentorship and project management program focuses on internet health and openness. Walkow is part of a cohort in the "culture track," in which participants learn how to design and build an open culture that promotes participation and inclusion.

iSchool Affiliate Professor John Price Wilkin, Juanita J. and Robert E. Simpson Dean of Libraries and University Librarian, has been named the 2019 winner of the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award. Wilkin will receive a cash award and citation during an ALCTS event at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Associate Professor Victoria Stodden has been elected Member-at-Large for the Statistics section of The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). AAAS is an international, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing science, engineering, and innovation around the world for the benefit of all people. As a Member-at-Large, Stodden will support the Statistics section's steering group in its responsibilities, which includes nominating and reviewing Fellows as well as proposing and reviewing symposia for the AAAS Annual Meeting. She will serve a four-year term, starting in February.