Chirag Shah to Receive the 2024 ASIS&T Research in Information Science Award
The Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) is delighted to announce that Dr. Chirag Shah is the recipient of the 2024 Research in Information Science Award. The award recognizes an individual or team who has made an outstanding contribution to information science research. The award is for a systematic “program of research” in a single area at a level beyond the single study, but not at the level of a lifetime’s work.
Shah is Professor in Information School (iSchool) at University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. He is also Adjunct Professor with Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering as well as Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE). He is the Founding Director for InfoSeeking Lab and Founding Co-Director of Center for Responsibility in AI Systems & Experiences (RAISE). His research involves building and studying intelligent information access systems, focusing on task-oriented search, proactive recommendations, and conversational systems. He is deeply engaged in work with generative AI, specifically in information access using large language models (LLMs). In addition to creating AI-driven information access systems that provide more personalized reactive and proactive recommendations, he is also focusing on making such systems transparent, fair, and free of biases.
Shah is a Distinguished Member of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) as well as Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T). He is the recipient of 2019 Microsoft BCS/IRSG Karen Spärck Jones Award. He has published nearly 200 peer-reviewed articles and authored seven books, including textbooks on data science and machine learning.
In nominating Shah, Nicholas Belkin, PhD said, “For over two decades, Chirag Shah has been engaged in a highly original, impactful and significant research program, addressing and incorporate research problems in a variety of fields of information science, within one broad, but coherent vision. This research has brought new insights and methods to “traditional” areas, especially interactive information retrieval (IIR), and has provided seminal work in new areas, including social information seeking, collaborative information seeking, and the social and ethical implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for information science and data science. Much of this work has taken place within the context of the interdisciplinary research labs that he has established, the InfoSeeking Lab, first at Rutgers, and subsequently at the University of Washington, and the Responsible AI Systems & Experiences (RAISE) center at the University of Washington. In these labs, he has brought together students, post-doctoral associates and faculty from information science, and from other disciplines, in research teams, which have conducted groundbreaking, interdisciplinary research in areas of significant importance to information science and cognate disciplines, and to society at large.”
Upon learning of his selection as winner of the Research in Information Science Award, Shah responded, “It’s an incredible honor to receive this recognition that is only possible because of the amazing mentors, colleagues, and students I have had over the years. Their individual and collective contributions helped me be curious, be constantly learning, and be bold with my methods and solutions — all things needed for a good research program. I’m immensely grateful to them for shaping my scholarly journey and the ASIS&T community for recognizing the merit of that trajectory."
Shah will receive the award during the 2024 meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) which will be held 25-29 October 2024 in Calgary, AB Canada.