The iSchool is pleased to announce that Ismini Lourentzou will join the faculty as an assistant professor in January 2024. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and director of the Perception and LANguage (PLAN) Lab at Virginia Tech.
The PhD degree program at the iSchool celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2023. This profile is part of a special series featuring PhD alumni. Jeanie Austin (PhD '17) is a jail and reentry services librarian at San Francisco Public Library.
Ted Quiballo (MSLIS '17) has been selected for a 2024 I Love My Librarian Award. Honorees were selected for their outstanding public service accomplishments. The award is administered by the American Library Association.
Associate Professor Emily Knox has been inducted as an Illinois Library Luminary. The Illinois Library Luminary Program, an initiative of the Illinois Library Association, recognizes those who have made a significant contribution to Illinois libraries. Knox's commitment to intellectual freedom and to shaping the next generation of librarians has touched every library in Illinois.
For Elysia Woodward (BSIS '23), it was an introductory class, Exploring the iSchool with a Human-Centered Lens (IS 100), that kickstarted her career. Now an associate in the ECDLP (Early Career Digital Leadership Program) at United Airlines, Woodward found out about United's internship programs and the ECDLP program through IS 100. She applied for an internship position in the summer of 2022 and received a return offer as an ECDLP associate.
Assistant Professor Travis Wagner is collaborating on a project that explores how library and information science research and medical library partnerships can inform lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) community health workers. The research aims to address the problem of health disparities among LGBTQIA+ populations.
Tara Batte joined the iSchool on December 4 as assistant director of recruitment and admissions. In this position, she will support recruitment and admissions for all degree programs in the School, with an emphasis on graduate programs.
A new guide to children's literature and culture includes a chapter by doctoral candidate Andrew Zalot. The Routledge Companion to Children's Literature and Culture, edited by Claudia Nelson, Elisabeth Wesseling, and Andrea Me-Ying Wu, was released at the end of November.
iSchool faculty, staff, and students will present their research at the 37th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2023), which will be held from December 10-16 in New Orleans, Louisiana. NeurIPS is one of the most prestigious and competitive international conferences in machine learning and computational neuroscience.
