UMSI awards & honors: March 2026

Faculty, staff and students of the University of Michigan School of Information regularly earn local and national recognition for their research, service and thought leadership. UMSI awards & honors is a monthly roundup celebrating achievements submitted by members of the UMSI community. Share your own good news or recognize a colleague at umsi.info/awards. 

Awards & honors

Cliff Lampe, professor of information and associate dean for academic affairs, has earned a Lifetime Service Award from the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction. The award honors influential individuals who have contributed to the growth and success of SIGCHI over many years.

UMSI researchers Tawanna Dillahunt, Mustafa Naseem and Florian Schaub have earned 2026 Google Academic Research Awards. Their projects will advance research on scam prevention and digital safety by creating meaningful interventions that prevent harm. 

UMSI PhD student Sena Kojah has earned a Robert J. Donia Graduate Student Fellowship, which includes a $6,000 grant to pursue research on human rights. Kojah will focus her research on the experiences of ethnic minorities in Nigeria with generative AI content. 

Master of Science in Information students Cara Anderson and Kimiya Firoozgan have been named 2026 Dow Sustainability Fellows. Supported by the Dow Company Foundation and administered by the Graham Sustainability Institute, the program is designed to foster collaboration across disciplines while encouraging sustainability leadership in different fields and sectors.

Bachelor of Science in Information student Tiffany Sudijono earned an honorable mention in the Computing Research Association’s Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards. Faculty from institutions across North America nominated undergraduate researchers who demonstrate strong research ability and a commitment to advancing the field. 

Thought leadership

Alissa Talley-Pixley, senior associate director of student engagement, and Angie Zill, engaged learning programs manager, will present a poster at Compact26, a national conference focused on the role of higher education in building healthy communities and fostering a just and equitable democracy, on March 17, 2026, in Chicago. Their poster, "From Startup to Sustainability: Building Scaffolds for Student Engagement," highlights the UMSI Engaged Learning Office's evolving model for engaged learning and community engagement, sharing lessons learned and future directions for effective campus-community engagement. 

Megan Threats, assistant professor of information, will speak at the inaugural Mary Hay Glass Symposium at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on March 25, 2026. The theme of the symposium is “Health Information in a Time of Change.” The hybrid event is open to the public (registration required; Zoom link available for virtual attendees).