I have been an Associate Professor in the School of Information Science at the University of South Carolina since 2023, after joining the University in 2017 as an Assistant Professor. My research investigates how information is created, used, and shared in digital environments. I apply computational and data science methods to address real-world problems in social contexts. I have published in areas including artificial intelligence, health informatics, misinformation, social media analytics, and the science of science. I also design and teach foundational and emerging courses at the undergraduate, graduate, and PhD levels in both face-to-face and fully online formats.
Before joining USC, I was a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine, Health and Biomedical Informatics, where I worked with Professor Kristi Holmes.
Earlier in the United Kingdom, I was part of a research team at the University of Wolverhampton’s Science Park that evaluated the Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise Network (KEEN) program, strengthening my interest in how knowledge moves across institutions and communities.
I earned my PhD in Information Science at the University of Wolverhampton under the supervision of Professor Mike Thelwall in the Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group. I began my PhD with a simple question: how can we measure the impact of science beyond citations? In my dissertation, I focused on this issue by large-scale data analysis from social networking sites to identify and test new metrics that reflect broader research impact outside academia across multiple disciplines, including the social sciences, medicine, and engineering.
I also hold a master's in Information Studies, and my thesis applied text mining, topic modeling, and visualizations of academic papers in nanoscience and technology publications. I completed my BA in Information Science at the University of Isfahan. I have also participated in specialized training programs, including the Summer Doctoral Programme at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, and a summer school on science, technology, and innovation indicators and knowledge dynamics visualization hosted by the European Network of Indicator Designers at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam.
Alongside my academic career, I have professional experience in industry, including roles as a sales and product manager at an IT company, an online information services office, and a user experience researcher in different organizations.
