[Asis-l] University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences Welcomes Kelly as New Director

[Allard, Suzanne Lorraine (Suzie)]

Diane Kelly, an internationally known information sciences scholar, is the new director of the University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences (SIS). She begins on August 8.

Kelly comes from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was a professor in the School of Information and Library Science. Her research and teaching interests focus on interactive information search and retrieval, information search behavior, and research methods.

“Diane Kelly, one of the world’s leading experts with respect to user evaluation of information retrieval systems, is an outstanding scholar/teacher, and we are excited to have her join us as the new director of our School of Information Sciences,” said Mike Wirth, dean of the College of Communication and Information. “Her world-wide connections and extensive grasp of the evolving and expanding fields encompassed by information sciences will provide SIS with the innovative leadership required to expand its interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teaching and research mission and to confront the challenges and opportunities associated with the world’s high-paced and fast growing knowledge economy.”

Kelly is active in academic/industry interest groups and has received numerous awards.

She is the current treasurer and chair-elect of the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval (ACM SIGIR) and served as conference program committee co-chair in 2013. She serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals including ACM Transaction on Information Systems, Information Processing & Management, and Information Retrieval Journal.

Kelly’s awards include the 2014 Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Research Award, the 2013 British Computer Society’s Information Retrieval Specialist Group (IRSG) Karen Spärck Jones Award, the 2009 ASIS&T/Thomson Reuters Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award and the 2007 UNC School of Information and Library Science Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award.

Kelly has a doctorate, a Master of Library Science degree and a graduate certificate in cognitive science from Rutgers University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and English from the University of Alabama.

She will be the sixth director of the School of Information Sciences since its founding, taking over for Ed Cortez who served as the fifth director of SIS from 2005-2015 and for Dania Bilal who served as the School’s interim director during the past year.


For more information contact:
Donna Silvey
Communication Specialist
dsilvey at utk.edu<mailto:dsilvey at utk.edu>