Two members of the UT Austin School of Information community have been named among the recipients of the UT President's 2026 Outstanding Staff Awards: current student Elista Street and double alumna Katie Pierce Meyer. They join a select group of 30 non-teaching university employees recognized this year for making outstanding contributions to the continuing success of the university. Recipients received a certificate and a $1,500 honorarium.

Fiona Romanoschi, a junior in the UT Austin School of Information's Informatics Program, has been named a Barry Goldwater Scholar for the 2026–2027 academic year. The Goldwater Scholarship is one of the most prestigious undergraduate awards in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, with just 454 students selected nationwide from a pool of more than 5,000 applicants this year.

Each year, the president of the University of Texas at Austin selects a Student Employee of the Year out of a set of finalists nominated by faculty and high-level staff. This year, iSchool graduate student Ishwari Garge reached the finalist stage. Although the top prize was eventually claimed by University Housing and Dining human resources student associate Sahithi Alla, we take this moment to salute Garge’s contributions to our school and her accomplishment in making finalist.

On March 10, only days into the widening conflict in Iran, Dr. Lucy Suchman, professor emerita at Lancaster University (U.K.) and a towering figure in the field of human-computer interaction, delivered a guest lecture to iSchool Professor David Gray Widder’s doctoral seminar on Political Economy of AI Supply Chains. Suchman’s lecture, trenchant as it was timely, focused on the risks and often unacknowledged limitations of artificial intelligence as used in warfare.

The 2026 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR) was held March 22-26 in Seattle, and the University of Texas School of Information was front and center, showcasing research excellence and leadership in the field. Several iSchoolers were in attendance as presenters, and two received awards. Please join us in congratulating the participants and winners!