Jeffrey Bardzell named dean of School of Information and Library Science

Dear Carolina Community,

I am pleased to announce that Jeffrey Bardzell, associate dean for faculty and graduate affairs in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University, has been selected School of Information and Library Science dean, effective April 1.

Bardzell is a well-established interdisciplinary researcher in human-computer interaction and design, with more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and an academic career that spans humanities, design computing and social science. His research has focused on creativity, criticality and design thinking; aesthetic interaction and experience design; social informatics and participatory design; and AI and more-than-human design. Additionally, Jeff has led or co-led research totaling $13 million in external grants, and he has received over a dozen awards for research, teaching and service.

As associate dean at Penn State, Bardzell worked with approximately 75 full-time faculty and supported more than 2,000 combined undergraduate and graduate students. He led projects including a 5-year curricular strategic plan, a generative AI task force and redesigned processes for doctoral student recruitment and faculty onboarding. Jeff joined Penn State in 2020 as a professor and associate dean of undergraduate and graduate studies, a role in which he served as a first responder for student needs.

Prior to his time at Penn State, Bardzell was a professor and director of human-computer interaction design in the School of Informatics at Indiana University-Bloomington. Additionally, he held visiting professorships in communications design and computer science at Shih Chien University, Taiwan, and Aarhus University, Denmark, respectively.

Jeff joins SILS during record growth in enrollment and grant funding and is poised to continue its success. Ranked the No. 2 information and library science program by U.S. News and World Report, SILS is a global leader in digital curation, health informatics, information interaction and retrieval, social informatics and librarianship of the 21st century.

I am grateful to Gary Marchionini, dean and Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor, for his 13 years of leadership. He has helped to build SILS into the thriving school it is today, and we wish him the best as he returns to the faculty.

I also want to thank the search committee members, chaired by Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, dean and Distinguished Alumni Professor at the School of Education, for their diligence in this search and care in selecting exceptional candidates for this role.

Please join me in congratulating Jeff and welcoming him to the Carolina community this spring.

Sincerely,

J. Christopher Clemens
Provost