University of Michigan School of Information researchers are addressing real-world problems through their work. Each day, UMSI faculty and PhD students are thinking through complex issues like privacy and security, the ethics of artificial intelligence, how best to use technology to leverage better health outcomes and meaningful practices for archiving works from marginalized communities. 

Their accomplishments are recognized both nationally and internationally. See their most recent achievements below. 

UMSI associate professor Ricky Punzalan has been appointed as the new director of U-M’s Museum Studies Program. His appointment began in July. Punzalan will be helping lead the next chapter of the program’s future and championing the next generation of archivists in the field of museum studies. 

UMSI research professor Stephanie Teasley has been appointed as the executive director of the International Society of the Learning Sciences. Her groundbreaking research on learning analytics has long been championed in the information field. 

UMSI doctoral candidate Sony Prosper has earned a 2023 Theodore Calvin Pease Award by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award recognizes superior writing achievement by a student of archival studies, and entries are judged on innovation, scholarship, pertinence and clarity of writing. 

Prosper’s paper, “Conceptualizing Records: Black Bottom Archives, Detroit Sound Conservancy, Faulkner Morgan Archive, Hula Preservation Society, and History Project,” explores conceptualizations of archival records in the context of community archives. The paper was nominated by UMSI associate professor Ricky Punzalan. 

UMSI doctoral candidate Abraham Mhaidli earned the Andreas Pfitzmann Best Student Paper Award at the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS) in Lausanne, Switzerland. The research team also includes two former Bachelor of Science in Information students — Selin Fidan and An Doan — and Master of Science in Information graduate Gina Herakovic. 

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