Michael Twidale

Michael Twidale is an Interim Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs, Professor, and Director of the Ph.D. Program at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds affiliate professorships at the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, the Information Trust Institute, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. His research focuses on digital libraries, human-computer interaction, open source software, and metadata. Twidale has been recognized with the ASIS&T Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award and the Clarivate Analytics Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award, both in 2017. His work emphasizes collaborative design, user experience, and the intersection of technology with community practices. He has advised on numerous projects involving cultural heritage digitization, educational technology, and software sustainability, and collaborates across disciplines to address challenges in information systems.

Twidale’s research interests span digital libraries, human-computer interaction, and open source software development. He explores how users interact with information systems, including studies on metadata, mental models, and software usability. His work often bridges theory and practice, such as designing tools for cultural heritage communities or analyzing volunteer motivations in FLOSS projects. His recent studies investigate information seeking behaviors, metaphors in user interfaces, and confusion management in educational contexts.

• Key Collaborations: Projects with African universities, musicology initiatives, and software sustainability networks.
• Labs/Teams: Active in NCSA, Beckman Institute, and the School of Information Sciences’ research groups.
• Grants: Funding for collaborative design, digital humanities, and educational technology projects (details unspecified).