Selected Awards & Distinctions


Elected Fellowships

2024 Fellow
Academy of the Association for Information Science and technology
2022 Fellow
Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
2021 SIG-USE Academy of Fellows
Association for Information Science and Technology, SIG-USE

Selected Awards & Recognition

2025 Vice-Chancellor’s Award, Excellence in Graduate Research Supervision
RMIT University
2025 Media Hall of Fame
RMIT University, Media & Communications
2025 Top 2% Most Cited Researchers Globally
Stanford University/Elsevier
2024 Media Commentator of the Year Award
RMIT University, Media & Communications
2024 Great Debate Winner, Social Sciences Week
Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
2024 Best University Communications Campaign, RMIT’s Taylor Swift Fanposium
Australian Higher Education/Future Campus
2024 Best Conference Paper Award (with Joann Cattlin)
Sage/IOS Best Paper, Information Seeking in Context Conference
2024 Top 2% Most Cited Researchers Globally
Stanford University/Elsevier
2024 Career Achievement Award
Canadian Association for Information Science
2024 50 Remarkable and Inspirational Women in Australian Science
Cosmos Magazine
2023 Media Commentator of the Year Award
RMIT University, Media & Communications
2023 Top 2% Most Cited Researchers Globally
Stanford University/Elsevier
2023 Research Infrastructure Excellence Award for Innovation and Contribution to Research, Team Award, Australian Cultural Data Engine
University of Melbourne
2022 Top 2% Most Cited Researchers Globally
Stanford University/Elsevier
2021 Outstanding Contributions to Information Behavior Research Award
Association for Information Science and Technology, SIG-USE
2021 Community Engagement Team Award (with Wade Kelly)
Swinburne University of Technology, Vice-Chancellor’s Engagement Award
2021 Top 2% Most Cited Researchers Globally
Stanford University/Elsevier
2017 Overall Best Conference Paper Award
Interviews that attend to emplacement: The ‘walk-through’ method (co-authors, Sarah Polkinghorne and Lauren Carlson)
Canadian Association for Information Science
2015 Award for Research Supervision Excellence
Charles Sturt University, Vice-Chancellor’s Award
2014 Outstanding Service Award for Advancing Scholarship and Research Supervision
Charles Sturt University, Islamic Students’ Association
2013 American Library Association Library Instruction Round Table’s 2013 Top 20 Paper Award
Information literacy proficiency: Assessing the gap in high school students’ readiness for undergraduate academic work (co-authors, Jorden K. Smith, Heidi Julien, Dana Ouellette and Kathleen DeLong)
2010 Martha Cook Piper Research Prize
University of Alberta
2010 Young Alumni Award of Merit
University of Western Ontario
2010 Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) – Methodology Paper Award
Visual Traffic Sweeps (VTS): A research method for mapping user activities in the library space (co-author, Heather Archibald)
2004 Coutts-Clarke Research Fellowship
Faculty of Education, University of Alberta
for Qualitative coding & analysis: A conceptual model for effective data management
2002 Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) – Methodology Paper Award
Data preparation using the principles of knowledge organization: A guiding model for quantitative, qualitative and textual research methodologies (co-author, Hope A. Olson)