By: Abeer Khan
12 Dec, 2024
Shaping the Future: Meet Some of the Researchers Leading Us Forward
December 12, 2024
How has our community of researchers evolved this year? Let’s take a look
Our research community saw many new additions and title changes in 2024, welcoming a new Research Council member, seven Fellows and appointing new program Co-Directors and Advisors from our existing pool of researchers.
Here is a look at how our research community has grown and evolved this past year:
Research Council
Sheryl Lightfoot joined the Research Council, which is responsible for advising the President & CEO on formulating, developing and establishing high-quality advanced research programs. Lightfoot has recently been appointed to the Political Science Department and the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto.
Program Leadership
Six new Co-Directors were appointed this year to four of our research programs. Most recently, we announced the appointment of Nicolas Papernot and Catherine Régis, two Canada CIFAR AI Chairs, as the inaugural Co-Directors of our new Canadian Institute for AI Safety (CAISI) Research Program at CIFAR.
Tim Bayne and Liad Mudrik, former Fellows in our Brain, Mind & Consciousness research program, have been appointed as the new Co-Directors of the program. Bayne is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Monash University and Mudrik is a Professor at the School of Psychological Sciences and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.
Andrew Schrank has been appointed as the new program Co-Director of the Innovation, Equity & The Future of Prosperity research program. Schrank is the Olive C. Watson Professor of Sociology and International and Public Affairs at Brown University.
Jamie Lorimer joins the Humans & the Microbiome research program as a new Co-Director. Lorimer is a Professor at the University of Oxford’s School of Geography and the Environment.
New Advisors
Three new Advisors have joined our Accelerated Decarbonization, Brain, Mind & Consciousness and Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities research programs.
Daniel Nocera, who is a part of Harvard University’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, has been appointed as an Advisor to CIFAR’s Accelerated Decarbonization program.
Rafi Malach, a former Fellow in the Brain, Mind & Consciousness program, has been appointed as an Advisor. Malach is a Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Sarah Gurr, a Professor in the Department of BioSciences at the University of Exeter, has been appointed as the Advisory Committee Chair of the Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities program.
New Fellows
Seven new Fellows have joined five of CIFAR’s research programs.
Janelle Baker and Maan Barua have joined Future Flourishing, one of our newer research programs, as Fellows. Baker is an Associate Professor at Athabasca University’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Science. Barua is a University Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Cambridge.
Colin Averill has joined the Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities research program as an Associate Fellow. Averill is the lead scientist at ETH Zurich’s Crowther Lab and the Founder of Funga, a company that uses the forest fungal microbiome to improve forestry outcomes, address the climate crisis and enhance beneficial microbial biodiversity. Ksenia Krasileva, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology and the Center for Computational Biology at the University of California Berkeley, is also joining the program as a Fellow.
The Innovation, Equity & The Future of Prosperity research program has welcomed Neil Lee as a new Fellow. Lee is a Professor in the Department of Geography & Environment at the London School of Economics.
Louis-Patrick Haraoui, a 2021-2023 CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar, is joining the Humans & the Microbiome program as a Fellow. Haraoui is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Université de Sherbrooke.
Joining our Learning in Machine & Brains research program as a Fellow is Timothy Lillicrap, who is the Director of Research at Google DeepMind.
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