Soo Young Rieh

Soo Young Rieh is the Interim Dean and Brook E. Sheldon Professor of Management and Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Information. Her research focuses on human information behavior, search as learning, creativity in search processes, and AI applications in libraries. She leads the LADDER Project, funded by IMLS, training future faculty in library, AI, and data-driven education. Rieh holds editorial roles at Information and Learning Sciences and JASIST, and previously served as Director-at-Large for ASIS&T and co-chair of CHIIR 2023.

Education: Ph.D. in Communication, Information, and Library Studies from Rutgers University. Prior roles include faculty at the University of Michigan School of Information (2002–2019) and Human Factors Research Engineer at Excite@Home.

Research highlights include conceptualizing searching as learning, evaluating cognitive processes during web searching, and developing tools like SearchIdea for creative search support. Her work addresses misinformation, information credibility, and library innovation.

Awards: Over 10 research honors, including ASIS&T’s Outstanding Contributions to Information Behavior Research (2019), CHIIR Best Paper (2023), and Watson Davis Award (2022).

Grants and Projects: PI of LADDER Project (IMLS), BiblioBouts game for research skills, and institutional repository studies. Active in professional service, including ACM SIGIR CHIIR Steering Committee and ASIS&T board roles.

Labs/Teams: Leads interdisciplinary research in search systems, AI ethics, and library education through collaborations with academic institutions and industry partners.