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About Alon
Alon Friedman, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the School of Information at the University of South Florida's College of Arts and Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. from Long Island University's Palmer School, M.A. from the University of Florida, and B.S. from the University of Florida. Friedman's research specializes in collaborative learning and the development of innovative teaching tools grounded in visualization theories. He employs statistical and visualization techniques, including open-source R and Leland Wilkinson's grammar of graphics, to foster visual structure and transparency. His ongoing projects include the Visual Peer Review Dashboard supported by the National Science Foundation, applications of Charles Sanders Peirce's sign theory through the lens of artificial intelligence, and explorations of art and visual communication such as Mark Lombardi's social networks.
In the classroom, Friedman instructs visual analytics, statistics and analytics, and open-source R and Python courses under the data science concentration, serving undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. students from the Schools of Information, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Muma College of Business, and College of Public Health. He authored the book Statistics for Library and Information Services: A Primer for Using Open Source R Software for Accessibility and Visualization (2016, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers). Select publications encompass "Concept theory and semiotics in knowledge organization" (2011, Journal of Documentation), "Nodes and Arcs: Concept Map, Semiotics, and Knowledge Organization" (2013, Journal of Documentation), "The Power of Lotka's Law through the eyes of R" (2015, Romanian Statistical Review), "Unlocking the power of visual grammar theory: Analyzing social media political advertising messages in the 2016 U.S. election" (2017, The Journal of Visual Literacy), "Big data visualization through the lens of Peirce’s visual sign theory" (2022, Punctum - International Journal of Semiotics), and "Icons and metaphors in visual communication: The relevance of Peirce’s theory of iconicity for the analysis of visual communication" (2023, Public Journal of Semiotics). Friedman's work has been cited over 430 times on Google Scholar. In December 2025, he was elevated to IEEE Senior Member.
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