Rachith Aiyappa earns IU Distinguished Ph.D. Dissertation Award

Rachith Aiyappa, a recent Ph.D. graduate in Informatics from Indiana University’s Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research, Observatory on Social Media, and Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, has been awarded the 2026 University Distinguished PhD Dissertation Award.

Aiyappa’s dissertation investigated how individual beliefs and social norms shape how information flows across social networks. Combining methodologies from network science, complex systems, computational social science, agent-based modeling, natural language processing, and AI, his framework offers a way to extract, model, and analyze belief networks from social media data. His findings aim to help predict population reactions to new information, design interventions against misinformation, and foster societal trust and cooperation.

Aiyappa was advised by Informatics/CNetS/OSoMe professors YY Ahn, FIl Menczer, Alessandro Flammini, and Jisun An. They praised his work as a seminal contribution to understanding belief systems. Despite starting his Ph.D. during the COVID-19 pandemic and joining lab meetings remotely from India, Aiyappa’s dedication led to research across multiple complex network domains. He expressed deep gratitude to Indiana University Bloomington, his advisors, and his mother for supporting his interdisciplinary journey.

Two other CNetS/OSoMe PhD students received similar honors in the past. Onur Varol won the Distinguished Ph.D. Dissertation Award in 2018. He’s now an assistant professor of computer science at Turkey’s Sabanci University and the founder of Viral AI, a technology startup. Kai-Cheng Yang was runner-up in 2024. He's now an assistant professor in the School of Computing at Binghamton University.