Paul Di Gangi, Ph.D., and Oluwafemi Akanfe, Ph.D., have been selected as the 2026 recipients of the Searcy Faculty Research Award at the UAB Collat School of Business.
Collat professors (l-r) Paul Di Gangi, Ph.D., Dean Chris Shook and Oluwafemi Akanfe, Ph.D.The award, funded through a generous gift from DeWayne and Shelley Searcy, recognizes and encourages high-impact research conducted by Collat business faculty.
“Research published in high-quality journals, while demanding, is the research most likely to shape practice and help organizations address their most challenging problems,” said John Hansen, Ph.D., Collat’s associate dean for research, academic, and faculty affairs. “Producing great research also enhances the student learning experience as quality research and effective teaching go hand in hand.”
The award recipients were selected by the school’s Research Advisory Committee, which created two categories of awards—a Junior Faculty Research Award for tenure-track faculty members who have not yet received tenure, and a Senior Faculty Research Award for tenured faculty members. The award recognizes each professor’s overall body of research with a particular emphasis on research quality.
Akanfe, an assistant professor of information systems, received the Junior Faculty Research Award. He joined Collat’s faculty in 2022 after receiving his doctorate in information technology from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He teaches business programming, information systems and IS security courses, and his research interests include privacy & security, regulatory compliance management, digital financial services, behavioral cybersecurity, and natural language processing. He already has one highly cited paper in International Journal of Information Management as well as others in Journal of the Association for Information Systems, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management and Information Systems Frontiers.
Di Gangi, a professor of information systems, received the Senior Faculty Research Award. He joined Collat’s faculty in 2013 and received his doctorate in management information systems from Florida State University. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Intellectual Capital, co-editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Digital Sovereignty and Global Data Governance, senior editor at the European Journal of Information Systems, and senior editor at MIS Quarterly Executive. He has previously been an associate editor at European Journal of Information Systems, Information & Management, Journal of Intellectual Capital, and Journal of Organizational & End User Computing. He is also a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), based on his work in security policy and compliance.
The Searcy Faculty Research Award comes with a $2,000 prize for each professor, funded through the school’s DeWayne and Shelley Searcy Research Fund.
“We are tremendously grateful to DeWayne and Shelley for their gift that allows us to recognize and reward outstanding research,” Hansen said. “Their support strengthens our commitment to producing research that makes a difference in practice and enhances teaching and learning in the classroom.”