BIOGRAPHY
Professor Emerita Linda C. Smith holds a PhD in information transfer from Syracuse University, MS in information and computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology, MS in library science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and BS in physics and mathematics from Allegheny College. Smith joined the faculty of the School of Information Sciences, the iSchool at Illinois, in 1977. She has been routinely named to the University’s List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent throughout her tenure and was named a University Distinguished Teacher-Scholar in 1999. Besides shaping many generations of librarians, information professionals, and scientists, Linda’s pioneering research investigated the potential of artificial intelligence for information retrieval, and her impact on education for the modern information professions is immense. Following her retirement in 2019, she returned as interim executive associate dean, a position she currently holds.