Nitin Agarwal, Ph.D.

Dr. Nitin Agarwal is the Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair and Donaghey Distinguished Professor and Founding Director of the Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS) Research Center. Prof. Agarwal joined the faculty of Information Science at UA Little Rock in Fall 2009. He is a faculty fellow at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley.

Prof. Agarwal works across the science, technology, and policy levels to push the boundaries of our understanding of emerging socio-cognitive behaviors evolving within modern information and communication platforms. At COSMOS, he leads projects with a combined funding of over $30 million from various U.S. federal agencies, including the Department of War, DARPA, the Department of State, and the National Science Foundation. These projects have made foundational and applied contributions to social and computational sciences, particularly in understanding coordinated and multimedia-rich adversarial information campaigns to counter cognitive threats.

He developed publicly available social media analysis tools that assist NATO Strategic Communications and Public Affairs, European Defense agencies, the Australian Defense Science and Technology Agency’s Strategic Policy Group, the Singapore government, and the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office, among others. Prof. Agarwal serves on the Arkansas AI Task Force, appointed by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Prof. Agarwal participates in the National Tech Innovation Hub, launched by the U.S. Department of State, to counter foreign-based adversarial influence campaigns.

• August 2003 – August 2009, Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science, Arizona State University (Outstanding doctoral dissertation recognition)
• August 1999 – July 2003, Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology, Indian Institute of Information Technology (Summa cum laude)

Prof. Agarwal’s research focuses on social computing, cognitive security, data mining, AI, and knowledge discovery in social media, modeling social dynamics, big “social” data analytics, and privacy. At COSMOS, he leads projects with over $30 million in funding from U.S. federal agencies (viz., U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, DARPA, and NSF) focused on computational social science, leveraging AI, data mining, and network analysis to study cyber behaviors, social movements, and mitigating cognitive threats. He has developed an interdisciplinary research program on social computing with both foundational and applied contributions. On the applied side, his research covers event analysis, cyber threat and cyberterrorism monitoring, smart health, social media in education, and socially aware mobile networks.

Prof. Agarwal works actively to bridge science, technology, and policy through innovation. He developed publicly available social media analysis tools, Btracker, VTracker, and COVID-19 Scam Tracker, which support NATO Strategic Communications, European defense agencies, Australia’s Defense Science and Technology agency, Singapore’s government, and the Arkansas Attorney General’s office, among others. He is also involved in the National Tech Innovation Hub, launched by the U.S. Department of State to combat adversarial influence operations. Prof. Agarwal serves on the Arkansas AI Taskforce, nominated by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. As chief technical advisor for Bond.AI, a Little Rock-based FinTech company, he contributes to the development of AI-driven financial behavioral models.

Dr. Agarwal has published 12 books and over 400 articles in top-tier peer-reviewed international journals and conferences, receiving over 25 Best Paper awards and over 7,000 citations from the research community. His work has been covered by a wide array of local, national, and international media (Bloomberg, U.S. News, KUAR, Arkansas Business, Arkansas Times, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Science 360, The Baltimore Sun, The Denver Gazette, and others). He has spoken at various public and professional, national, and international forums such as the NATO StratCom COE (Riga, Latvia), DARPA, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Naval Space and Warfare (SPAWAR), U.S. Pentagon Strategic Multilevel Assessment groups, U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Facebook Asia Pacific HQ, Twitter Asia Pacific HQ, U.S. Embassy in Singapore, Singapore Ministry of Communication and Information, NATO Senior Leadership meetings, and USIP. He obtained a PhD from Arizona State University with outstanding dissertation recognition.

Prof. Agarwal has published 12 books and over 400 research articles in leading international journals and conferences.  These publications are well cited (over 7,000 times) by the international scientific community and have won more than 25 best paper awards. Full list is available at https://agarwalnitin.com/. Below is a list of some recent and noteworthy publications:

• Nitin Agarwal and Tope Christopher Falade. Context-Dependent Toxicity Propagation in Online Discourse: A Generational Analysis Framework for Characterizing Conversation Dynamics in Reddit. Journal of Social Computing. IEEE. 2026. DOI: 10.23919/JSC.2026.0017.
• Nitin Agarwal and Monoarul Bhuiyan. Decoding Persuasive Content Traps: A Comprehensive Analysis of Persuasive Cues, Topical Uniformity, and Engagement on YouTube’s Recommendation Networks. Journal of Social Network Analysis and Mining (SNAM). Springer. 2026. DOI: 10.1007/s13278-026-01605-4.
• Ridwan Amure and Nitin Agarwal. Modeling Cross-Platform Narrative Diffusion: A Stable Hawkes–ODE Framework for Exposure and Adoption Dynamics. Journal of Social Network Analysis and Mining (SNAM). Springer. 2026. DOI: 10.1007/s13278-026-01600-9.
• Nitin Agarwal and Monoarul Bhuiyan. Attraction and Retention Dynamics in Recommendation Graphs: A Cross-Dataset Analysis Using Uniform and Degree-Biased Random Walks. Journal of Social Network Analysis and Mining (SNAM). Springer. 2026. DOI: 10.1007/s13278-026-01598-0.
• Tuja Khaund, Baris Kirdemir, Nitin Agarwal, Fred Morstatter, and Huan Liu. Social Bots and Their Coordination during Online Campaigns: A Survey. Transactions on Computational Social Systems (TCSS). IEEE. 2021. DOI: 10.1109/TCSS.2021.3103515
• Ugur Kursuncu, Hemant Purohit, Nitin Agarwal, and Amit Sheth. When the Bad is Good and the Good is Bad: Understanding Cyber Social Health Through Online Behavioral Change. IEEE Internet Computing. Volume 25, Issue 1. 2021. IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/MIC.2020.3045232.
• Nitin Agarwal and Kiran Kumar Bandeli. Examining Strategic Integration of Social Media Platforms in Disinformation Campaign Coordination. Journal of NATO Defence Strategic Communications, Vol. 4, pp. 173-206, 2018. DOI: 10.30966/2018.RIGA.4.6.
• Nitin Agarwal, Samer Al-khateeb, Rick Galeano, and Rebecca Goolsby. Examining the Use of Botnets and their Evolution in Propaganda Dissemination. Journal of NATO Defence Strategic Communications, Vol. 2, pp. 87-112. 2017.
• Nitin Agarwal, Merlyna Lim, and Rolf T. Wigand. “Raising and Rising Voices in Social Media: A Novel Methodological Approach in Studying Cyber-Collective Movements”. Business & Information Systems Engineering (BISE) Special Issue on IS and Culture, Dorothy Leidner (Ed.), WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK. 2012. DOI: 10.1007/s12599-012-0210-z (English); 10.1007/s11576-012-0317-3 (German translation) Best IS Publication of 2012 Award.
• Nitin Agarwal, Huan Liu, Lei Tang, and Philip S. Yu. Modeling Blogger Influence in a Community. Journal Social Network Analysis and Mining, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 139-162, 2012. Springer. DOI: 10.1007/s13278-011-0039-3.
• Full list is available at https://agarwalnitin.com/

• Prof. Agarwal’s COVID-19 Scam Tracker recognized by the World Health Organization as a key technological innovation globally to address the COVID-19 pandemic
• Prof. Agarwal’s Research recognized as a top 10 solution for “Countering Cognitive Warfare: The Invisible Threat” by NATO’s Innovation Hub
• Prof. Agarwal received University-wide Faculty Excellence Award in Research and Creative Endeavors (2015 and 2021), University of Arkansas – Little Rock
• Prof. Agarwal received College DCSTEM-wide Faculty Excellence Award in Research and Creative Endeavors (2015 and 2021), DCSTEM College, University of Arkansas – Little Rock
• Prof. Agarwal received more than 25 Best Paper awards for research studies published at various international conferences and journals.
• Prof. Agarwal selected as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Distinguished Visitor
• Prof. Agarwal selected as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Senior Member
• Prof. Agarwal nominated as an Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA) Fellow (2018)
• Prof. Agarwal nominated as an Arkansas Academy of Computing (AAoC) Fellow (2018)
• Prof. Agarwal nominated as an International Academy, Research and Industry Association (IARIA) Fellow (2018)
• Prof. Agarwal featured in the Arkansas Times special issue on “Visionary Arkansans” (2017)
• Prof. Agarwal received Social Media Educator of the Year Award, 21st International Education and Technology Conference (2015)
• Prof. Agarwal recognized as one of ‘The New Influentials: 20 In Their 20s,’ Arkansas Business (2012)
• Full list available on https://agarwalnitin.com/

Courses developed by Prof. Agarwal at UA Little Rock:

• IFSC 79903 Research Methods in Information Science
• IFSC 46003/56003 Social Computing
• IFSC 49903/59903 Social Media Mining and Analytics

Existing courses taught by Prof. Agarwal at UA Little Rock:

• IFSC 71003 Information System Analysis
• IFSC 36003 System Analysis and Design
• IFSC 72003 Database System/Information Architecture
• IFSC 41002/CPSC 41002 Computer Ethics

• CITI Program Course Certification for Social and Behavioral Responsible Conduct of Research
• CITI Program Course Certification for Human Research –  Social and Behavioral Research Investigators and Key Personnel

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) – member
• Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA) – Fellow
• Arkansas Academy of Computing (AAOC) – Fellow
• Association for Information Systems (AIS) – member
• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) – member
• Digital Transformation Research Society (DTR Society) – Scientific Advisory Board Member
• International Academy, Research, and Industry Association (IARIA) – Fellow
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) – Distinguished Visitor & Senior Member
• International Network of Social Network Analysis (INSNA) – member

• Prof. Agarwal serves on the Arkansas AI Taskforce, nominated by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
• As chief technical advisor for Bond.AI, a Little Rock-based FinTech company, Prof. Agarwal contributes to the development of AI-driven financial behavioral models.
• Prof. Agarwal serves as an external reviewer for grant applications/research proposals for the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of War/Defense, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, National Science Agency of Saudi Arabia, Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and others.
• Prof. Agarwal serves as an external evaluator for several promotion and tenure applications of faculty from various U.S. and international universities.
• Prof. Agarwal serves as an external doctoral dissertation examiner for doctoral students from various U.S. and international universities.
• Prof. Agarwal serves on the editorial boards (as editor in chief, associate editor, and guest editor) of more than 20 international journals in information science, social network analysis, data mining, machine learning, AI, communication systems, health informatics, and human computation.
• Prof. Agarwal serves/served as the organizing chair, steering committee, senior program committee, technical program committee, publicity committee, sponsorship committee, etc., of more than 30 top-tier international conferences.
• DCSTEM College Graduate Curriculum Committee (IFSC Representative)
• UALR Strategic Research Plan Committee
• UALR Research Advisory Council
• Arkansas Research Alliance, Steering Committee, Annual Retreat
• Full list available on https://agarwalnitin.com/

• July 2015 – present: Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair and Donaghey Distinguished Professor of Information Science, University of Arkansas – Little Rock
• July 2015 – present: Founding Director, Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS) Research Center, University of Arkansas – Little Rock
• June 2022 – present: Faculty Fellow, International Computer Science Institute, University of California – Berkeley
• 2013 – 2015: Associate Professor of Information Science, University of Arkansas – Little Rock
• 2009 – 2013: Assistant Professor (tenure-track) of Information Science, University of Arkansas – Little Rock
• 2008 – 2009: Graduate Research Associate, School of Computing and Informatics, Arizona State University
• 2003 – 2008: Graduate Research Associate, Hispanic Research Center, Arizona State University