COSMOS Research Center is proud to share that Prof. Nitin Agarwal, Maulden-Entergy Chair, Donaghey Distinguished Professor, and Founding Director of COSMOS at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has received the 2026 Faculty Excellence Award for Research and Creative Endeavors from the Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (DCSTEM) College.

This prestigious recognition honors faculty whose research or creative endeavors have been particularly successful and have received recognition locally, nationally, and globally. Prof. Agarwal’s selection highlights his groundbreaking contributions to social computing, AI, cognitive security, online influence, and the study of digital and socio-cognitive behaviors across modern information and communication platforms.

At COSMOS, Prof. Agarwal leads research that advances understanding of how online narratives, influence campaigns, and digital behaviors emerge, evolve, and spread across social media and other networked environments. His work has supported the development of analytical tools and capabilities used to study cognitive threats, online manipulation, and adversarial information activities.

Prof. Agarwal’s research portfolio has received more than $60 million in funding from agencies including the U.S. Department of Defense, DARPA, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of State, and his publicly available social media analysis tools have supported organizations such as U.S. SOCOM, CYBERCOMMAND, EUCOM, INDOPACOM, NATO StratCom, defense agencies across Europe, Australia, and Singapore, and the Arkansas Attorney General’s office; his scholarly record includes 12 books and more than 400 peer-reviewed research articles with over 7,000 citations and more than 30 best paper awards, and his work has been recognized by NATO’s Innovation Hub as a top solution for countering cognitive warfare, while his COVID-19 Scam Tracker was recognized by the World Health Organization as a key technological innovation during the pandemic.

Beyond his research achievements, Prof. Agarwal has mentored and graduated close to 100 students, many of whom have gone on to leadership roles in academia and top global companies. This recognition reflects not only his sustained research excellence but also COSMOS’s continued commitment to advancing impactful, interdisciplinary research at the intersection of AI, social computing, cognitive security, and smart health.