PhD student Puranjani Das has been selected as a recipient of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) SIG CMR Student Membership Award for the 2024-2025 academic year. She will receive a complimentary one-year membership in both ASIS&T and SIG CMR, a special interest group focused on classification and metadata research.
Adjunct Lecturer Kristen Mattson has received the 2024 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Making It Happen Award. The award honors educators and leaders who demonstrate outstanding commitment, leadership, courage, and persistence in improving digital learning opportunities for students.
Maria Bonn, associate professor and director of the MSLIS and CAS programs, has been elected president-elect of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). She will begin her one-year term immediately following the ASIS&T Annual Meeting, which will be held from October 25-29 in Calgary, Canada, and will assume the presidency in fall 2025.
Zifan Zhao, who is pursuing dual degrees in information sciences + data science and psychology with a concentration in cognitive neuroscience, has been selected as a 2024 Beckman Institute Undergraduate Fellow. The program provides undergraduate students with a $3,000 award to pursue interdisciplinary research at the Beckman Institute during the summer.
PhD student Abhinav Choudhry has received a 2024-2026 Institute for Information Literacy at Purdue research award for his project, "Gamified Finance Simulator for Older Adults: A Financial Literacy and Vulnerability Intervention." The $4,000 award is intended for research that enables people to navigate and contribute to today's information environment. Associate Professor Rachel Adler and PhD student Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou will serve as co-principal investigators on the project, which aims to create a gamified simulation of digital banking.
A collaborative project of the iSchool's Center for Children's Books (CCB) and the National Park Service (NPS) has been honored by the Organization of American Historians. The Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, which features the Books to Parks website, received the Stanton-Horton Award, which recognizes "excellence in National Park Service historical efforts that make the NPS a leader in promoting public understanding of and engagement with American history."
Each year, the School of Information Sciences recognizes a group of outstanding students for their achievement in academics as well as a number of attributes that contribute to professional success. For more information about each award, including past recipients, visit the Student Awards page.
The Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI), in partnership with the Center for Social and Behavioral Science and with support from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, has selected BSIS students Sophie Chiewtrakoon and Madisen LeShoure as 2024 Community-Academic Scholars. The 17 scholars in this cohort represent seven colleges and schools and encompass a diverse array of fields of study, from community health to education to industrial design.
For its educational programming and advocacy work in support of the right to read, the Missouri Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) has been named the 2023 recipient of the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award. The award is given annually by the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and is co-sponsored by Sage, a global academic publisher of books, journals, and library resources.
