CIS FACULTY

The faculty contributing to the Communication and Information Sciences PhD reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the program. CIS Graduate Faculty are appointed tenure track faculty from the five partner units, and may serve as advisors to CIS PhD students, dissertation committee chairs, and inside dissertation committee members. CIS Cooperating Graduate Faculty and CIS Affiliate Graduate Faculty may also serve as inside committee members for CIS PhD dissertations.

For the full list of possible dissertation committee members, please see Graduate Division’s Committee Member Selection website, scroll to the bottom of the Program column, and choose Communication and Information Sciences. More info on forming the dissertation committee can be found here.

CIS Program Chair

Rich Gazan

Professor, Library & Information Science Program, School of Communication & Information

Email: cischair@hawaii.edu

Interests: I’m interested in how people integrate diverse types of knowledge: in document collections, interdisciplinary scientific collaborations (primarily with the NASA Astrobiology Institute), social Q&A and music discovery communities, and via informal educational resources. I was hired as a crossover faculty member in both Information & Computer Sciences and Library & Information Science, and I enjoy how interdisciplinary research can translate and transport ideas across fields. Interdisciplinary work requires listening to all participants, understanding the language, history, evidence and metrics that matter within their communities, and proposing grounded, co-created ideas. Interdisciplinary research can be a quagmire of near-infinite possibility, and helping students see points of potential connection, and the good their work can do as a bridge, is endlessly fun. I’m genuinely grateful to serve as CIS Chair.

Website: https://www2.hawaii.edu/~gazan/

Faculty

Photo	Professor	Department/Program	Research Interests	Contact
	Patricia Anna Kāwelu Amaral	COM	Science communication, Emergent media, Indigenous storytelling, Utilization of creative communication for civic engagement	pamaral@hawaii.edu
	Kyungim Baek	ICS	Pattern recognition and machine learning in Bioinformatics; Computer vision; Computational model of visual perception; Deep learning; Neural computation	kyungim@hawaii.edu
	Edo Biagioni	ICS	Networking, Systems and Languages, Networking Security	esb@hawaii.edu
	Kim Binsted	ICS	Human Communication, Information Management, Intelligent Interfaces	binsted@hawaii.edu
	Wayne Buente	COM	Social Media, Information Inequality, Democracy	wbuente@hawaii.edu
	Tung Bui	ITM	Computer-supported Group Decision	tung.bui@hawaii.edu
	Henri Casanova	ICS	Parallel and Distributed Computing, Grid Computing	henric@hawaii.edu
	Hong-Mei Chen	ITM	Service Engineering and Business-IT Alignment	hmchen@hawaii.edu
	Huaijin Chen	ICS	Computational imaging, computer vision, AI, robotics	huaijin@hawaii.edu
	David N. Chin	ICS	Artificial Intelligence, User Interface, Geographic Information Systems	chin@hawaii.edu
	Martha Crosby	ICS	Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, Cognitive Science	crosby@hawaii.edu
	Elizabeth J. Davidson	ITM	Health Informatics, Information Technology Management, Organizational Theory	edavidso@hawaii.edu
	Jessica Gasiorek	COMG	Intergroup & Intergenerational Communication, Social Cognition, Create Understanding	gasiorek@hawaii.edu
	Rich Gazan	ICS/LIS	Social Aspects of Information Technology, Interdisciplinary Collaborations	gazan@hawaii.edu
	Julien Gorbach	JOUR	History of American Media, Middle East, Literary Journalism	gorbach@hawaii.edu
	Jingyi Gu	COM	Digital Cultures, Platform Economies, Critical Technology Studies, and Global Media	jingyigu@hawaii.edu
	Amy Hubbard	COMG	Nonverbal Communication, Conflict & Relational Management, Deception	aebesu@hawaii.edu
	Prasanna Karhade	ITM	Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Digital Platforms and GREAT Economies, Governance and Family Business	karhade@hawaii.edu
	Rick Kazman	ITM	Software Architecture, Human-Computer Interaction	kazman@hawaii.edu
	Ji Young Kim	COM	Strategic Communication Management, Public Relations, Agenda-Building Theory	jkim22@hawaii.edu
	Min-Sun Kim	COMG	Intercultural Communication, Artificial Intelligence & Communication, Persuasion & Social Influence	kmin@hawaii.edu
	Nurit Kirshenbaum	ICS	Human Computer Interaction, Tangible User Interfaces, Mixed Media, Visualization, Tools for Creativity and Collaboration	nuritk@hawaii.edu
	Hanae Kramer	COM	Intercultural and Global Communication, Literature, Media Campaigns	hanae@hawaii.edu
	Hye-ryeon Lee	COMG	Health Communication, Campaigns, Persuasion & Social Influence	hyeryeon@hawaii.edu
	Jason Leigh	ICS	Big Data Visualization, Virtual Reality, High Performance Networking	leighj@hawaii.edu
	Depeng Li	ICS	Security and Privacy, Internet of Things, Applied Crytography	depengli@hawaii.edu
	Lipyeow Lim	ICS	Big Data Management, Database Query Optimization	lipyeow@hawaii.edu
	Randy Minas	ITM	Cognitive Biases, Collaboration, Decision-making	rminas@hawaii.edu
	Katy Tarrit Mirakhorli	ICS	Cognitive Neuroscience, Human Brain Development, Digital Signal and Image Processing, Brain Computer Interface, Application of AI/ML to Brain Data	katytm7@hawaii.edu
	Mehdi Tarrit Mirakhorli	ICS	Software Engineering, Trustworthy Software, Software Assurance, Cybersecurity, Scientific Software Development	mehdi23@hawaii.edu
	Colin Moore	PACE	American Political Development, Health Policy	cdmoore@hawaii.edu
	Rachel Neo	COM	Political Communication, Social Media, Persuasion	rneo@hawaii.edu
	Michael-Brian Ogawa	ICS	Information, Computer Education, Cyber and Physical Security	ogawam@hawaii.edu
	Brett Oppegaard	JOUR	Ubiquitous Computing, Mobile Media, Locative Media	brett.oppegaard@hawaii.edu
	Dusko Pavlovic	ICS	Cyber Security, Information Assurance, Quantum Information Theory	dusko@hawaii.edu
	Guylaine Poisson	ICS	Bioinformatics, Computational Biology	guylaine@hawaii.edu
	Daniel Port	ITM	Information Technology Engineering	dport@hawaii.edu
	Anthony Peruma	ICS	Software Maintenance & Evolution, Software Security, Software Engineering for AI, Software Engineering Education, Human Aspects of Software Engineering	peruma@hawaii.edu
	Alexandria Rayburn	LIS	Digital Curation and Information Science	arayburn@hawaii.edu
	Scott Robertson	ICS	Human-Computer Interaction, Social Media and Civic Engagement, Digital Government	scott.robertson@hawaii.edu
	Peter Sadowski	ICS	Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence	peter.sadowski@hawaii.edu
	Peter-Michael Seidel	ICS	Formal Methods, Computer Arithmetic, Digital Hardware Design	pseidel@hawaii.edu
	Nodari Sitchinava	ICS	Design and Analysis of Algorithms	nodari@hawaii.edu
	Jan Stelovsky	ICS	Multimedia, Human-Computer Interaction, Software Architectures	janst@hawaii.edu
	Susanne Still	ICS	Machine Learning, Interactive Learning, Predictive Models of Time Series Data	sstill@hawaii.edu
	Daniel Suthers	ICS	Technology Enhanced Learning, Human-Computer Interaction, Social Informatics	suthers@hawaii.edu
	Emiko Taniguchi	COMG	Interpersonal Health Communication, Family Communication, Cross-Cultural Communication	emikotan@hawaii.edu
	Andrew Wertheimer	LIS	Information Science, History of Libraries & Archives, Collection Management	wertheim@hawaii.edu
	Italo Santos	ICS	Software Engineering and Human Aspects, Open-Source Software, Human-Computer Interaction, Empirical Software Engineering, Software Engineering Education and Training	isantos3@hawaii.edu
	Yifan Wang	ICS	Databases, High-dimensional data systems, AI+DB, Data analytic systems, Information retrieval, Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for LLM	yifanw@hawaii.edu
	Jenifer Sunrise Winter	COM	Big Data Governance (Privacy, Security), Artificial Intelligence Ethics, Information Policy	jwinter@hawaii.edu
	Bo Xiao	ITM	Human-Computer Interaction, Dark Side of Digitization, Health Information Systems	boxiao@hawaii.edu
	Haopeng Zhang	ICS	Natural language processing, Large language models, AI for science	haopengz@hawaii.edu