Agarwal to Receive 2025 Bob Williams Research Grant
The Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) is delighted to announce that Dr. Naresh Agarwal is the recipient of the 2025 Bob Williams Research Grant. The Grant is awarded to an outstanding research proposal exploring the history of information science and technology. Agarwal’s grant proposal is titled, “Weaving the history of the information science field through the life journeys of ASIS&T Past Presidents.” The project will explore how their life journeys helped shape the information science field.
Agarwal is a Professor and Director of Information Science & Technology Concentration at the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University. His research area is information behavior and knowledge management. He has authored two books, ‘Exploring Context in Information Behavior’ and 'Engineering to Ikigai’ (South Asia) / ‘You know the glory, not the story’ (International). He is co-authoring a book on Knowledge Management in Libraries. He has been a keynote/invited speaker in several countries. Born and brought up in Sikkim, India, he earned his Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore. In 2018, he started projectonenessworld.com to gather human stories through interviews.
Agarwal was the President of ASIS&T in 2022-23. Among various leadership roles, he co-chaired the 2017 Annual Meeting and founded the South Asia Chapter. He was awarded the James Cretsos Leadership Award, was recognized as a Distinguished Member and a Lifetime Member and received the Watson Davis Award for Service.
In assessing the proposal, one jury member wrote, “The study aligns closely with the mission of ASIS&T by exploring information science's historical and intellectual development through the lived experiences of its most influential leaders—past ASIS&T Presidents. It fills a critical gap by synthesizing their oral histories of ASIS&T Presidents, weaving their individual trajectories into a collective narrative of the field’s history.”
Upon learning of his selection as winner of the grant, Agarwal responded, “I had the privilege of interacting with Dr. Bob Williams from 2012 to 2015 and helping with an interview for his Oral History Project. I am honored to receive this grant in his name. I would like to thank the jury and am looking forward to carrying out the interviews.”
Agarwal will receive the grant during the 2025 ASIS&T annual meeting which will be held 14-18 November, 2025 in Crystal City, Virginia.
About ASIS&T
ASIS&T is the pre-eminent professional association for thousands of researchers, developers, practitioners, students, and professors in the field of information science and technology from 50 countries around the world. For more than 85 years, ASIS&T has been leading the search for new and better theories, techniques, and technologies to improve access to information.