By: Justine Brooks
3 Feb, 2025
CAISI Research Program at CIFAR announces council membership
February 3, 2025
CAISI Research Council made up of experts and representatives from across Canada
CIFAR is delighted to announce the individuals who will be serving on its Research Council for the Canadian AI Safety Institute (CAISI) Research Program, advising CIFAR on the delivery of the program to advance understanding of the risks associated with advanced AI systems, as well as our capacity to detect and mitigate them.
The CAISI Research Council is composed of experts and representatives from CIFAR, Canada’s National AI Institutes, the National Research Council and other partners. Council members represent some of the leading researchers in AI safety across Canada.
Nicolas Papernot and Catherine Régis, who were announced as Co-Directors of the CAISI Research Program at CIFAR in December, will be responsible for providing scientific leadership to the program.
The members of the CAISI Research Council are:
CAISI Research Program at CIFAR Co-Directors
Nicolas Papernot
Nicolas Papernot is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Computer Science, and Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, and a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. Papernot’s research interests span the areas of computer security and privacy in machine learning.
Catherine Régis
Catherine Régis is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Mila, full professor at the Faculty of Law at Université de Montréal, the Director of Social Innovation and International Policy at IVADO and holds a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy. Her work explores how to best regulate AI at the national and international levels and to build responsible AI governance approaches more broadly.
CAISI Research Council Members
Mathias Lécuyer
Mathias Lécuyer is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia. Lécuyer’s research focuses on machine learning applications that provide rigorous guarantees of robustness, privacy and security, improving both practical and theoretical tools and enabling specific use-cases.
Alyssa Lefaivre Škopac
Alyssa Lefaivre Škopac is the director of AI Trust & Safety at Amii. She is a seasoned leader with over 15 years in business and partnership development, specializing in emerging technologies and AI. She has a proven track record of securing strategic partnerships with Fortune 500 companies and international institutions, significantly advancing AI safety initiatives that drive measurable impact.
Joel Martin
Joel Martin is the National Research Council’s Chief Digital Research Officer and Chief Science Officer. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, from the Georgia Institute of Technology and has received awards for exceptional leadership and for innovative approaches to technology transfer. He has published dozens of peer-reviewed research articles and taught Computer Science courses at both the University of Ottawa and Carleton University.
Sheila McIlraith
Sheila McIlraith is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto and an associate director and research lead at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. McIlraith’s research is in the area of sequential decision making with a focus on human-compatible AI. More recently her work has also focused on AI safety and alignment.
Deval Pandya
Deval Pandya is the vice president of AI Engineering at Vector Institute and is passionate about the role of digital technologies in accelerating energy transition and energy equity, as well as about building machine learning teams and products for societal good.
Benjamin Prud’homme
Benjamin Prud’homme is vice-president of Policy, Safety and Global Affairs at Mila. He is an appointed expert of the OECD.AI Network, the United Nations Consultative Network of AI Experts, and UNESCO’s AI Ethics Experts Without Borders. He also co-leads the Global Partnership on AI project “Creating Diversity and Substantive Equality in AI Ecosystems”, and is involved with the International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI.
Reihaneh Rabbany
Reihaneh Rabbany is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Mila and an assistant professor in the School of Computer Science at McGill University. Rabbany’s research is at the intersection of network science, data mining and machine learning, with a focus on developing techniques for analyzing large-scale complex data that is interconnected, evolving, multi-modal and noisy. She is particularly interested in data from online societies and applications to enhance the health and safety of online spaces.
Geoffrey Rockwell
Geoffrey Rockwell is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Amii and a professor in the Faculty of Arts Media Tech Studies and Philosophy Departments at the University of Alberta. Rockwell studies video games, textual visualization, text analysis and the ethics of technology and artificial intelligence.
Elissa Strome
Elissa Strome is the executive director of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy at CIFAR. She works with leaders at Canada’s three National AI Institutes and across the country to advance Canada’s leadership in AI research, training and innovation. Strome is a member of the federal government’s AI Advisory Council, a member of the OECD’s Network of Experts on AI and Expert Group on AI in Health, and is a member of the Health Canada Expert Advisory Committee for AI in Health.
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