By Colleen Donnelly for the Princeton Graduate School
Arvind Narayanan has received a 2025 Graduate Mentoring Award, given by the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning and Princeton's Graduate School.
This honor is awarded to Princeton faculty members who serve as exemplary mentors in nurturing the potential of their graduate students as scholars, teachers and people.
Current and former graduate students nominate faculty members for the Graduate Mentoring Award, and Princeton graduate students serve on the selection committee along with last year’s faculty awardees and senior staff from the Graduate School and the McGraw Center. Every year, one faculty member is selected to receive this honor from each of the University’s academic divisions — engineering, natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities.
Narayanan, professor of computer science, joined the Princeton faculty in 2012 and studies the social impact of digital technologies, especially artificial intelligence. He directs the Center for Information Technology Policy.
A hallmark of Narayanan's mentorship is his deep commitment to true partnership with graduate students, which often takes the form of co-authored papers in top-tier journals and shared presentations at high-profile conferences. “Arvind’s encouragement and insight in class and during office hours have formed the basis for several successful class projects turning into research publications and kickstarting research careers,” one doctoral student wrote.
Described as “transformative” in nearly every nomination, Narayanan balances guidance with independence, empowering early-stage researchers with a sense of ownership and insightful feedback that amplifies ideas.
“Arvind is a true thought leader who inspires you to anticipate and tackle ambitious research problems,” one student said. “He repeatedly demonstrates his unique ability to anticipate shifts in research trends and encourages me to do work that bridges academic rigor and real-world impact.”
Another graduate student offered this powerful reflection: “Perhaps the strongest testimony to Arvind’s mentorship is that after working with him, I am strongly motivated to pursue a career in academia — despite working in a field where industry jobs are highly competitive and resulting in researchers leaving academia to join industry by the dozens.”
In addition to Narayanan, other recipients of the award this year are Elizabeth Margulis, Kristina Olson and Serguei Oushakine. Recipients will be honored during the Graduate School’s Hooding ceremony.