Member Spotlight, September 2022

Yuelin Li

Professor
Director, Office of International Affairs, Nankai University
Chair, Department of Information Resources Management, Business School, Nankai University
Tianjin, China

How long have you been an ASIS&T member?
Almost 20 years! I joined ASIS&T in 2003, when I was a PhD student at Rutgers University.

Why did you decide to join ASIS&T?
When I was a PhD student, my advisor, Professor Nicholas J. Belkin and PhD fellows always mentioned ASIS&T and actively participated in different activities organized by the ASIS&T community. That attracted me a lot and impressed me. So, I decided to join the ASIS&T and follow them.

How have you benefitted from being an ASIS&T member?
First, I learned the frontiers in information science by participating in different events of ASIS&T, especially the Annual Meetings each year. This helps me to keep learning new knowledge in information science and propose new research projects. Second, I have made a lot of friends in this community, who help me promote my academic career a lot. I have invited many friends in the ASIS&T community to visit my university and delivered lectures or research presentations. They were invited to participate in the conference hosted by my university and have contributed a lot to advance international academic exchange and collaboration.  Third, the diversity of ASIS&T and respect to people from different countries in the world make the members feel comfortable.

Do you have any advice for new ASIS&T members?
Participate in different academic events, especially the Annual Meeting each year. You will see an active, dynamic, and energetic community.

1. Try to find potential collaborative opportunities when participating in different events.
2. Be brave to talk with the ASIS&T members, even though they are very big name! I find most of them are very nice and always willing to help young scholars (I really got a lot of help from them when I was a young scholar!).

Who has inspired you in your career?
Many people, especially my advisors, Professor Shouzhen Zhong and Professor Nicholas J. Belkin. They were my advisor when I was a master and PhD student, respectively. Also, Professor Tefko Saracevic and Jim Jansen inspired me a lot in doing research and to keep publishing.

What parts of information science give you the most joy and motivate you to continue your work?
Information science is concerned with the relationships among users, information, and information technologies. I enjoy exploring their relationships and helping users to more effectively access useful or high-quality information online or from different types of information systems. I also hope my research can inform the design of these systems and make them better support user interaction with the systems and information. In my view, information science is an amazing area.