Eric Horvitz, MD. PhD serves as Microsoft's Chief Scientific Officer. He spearheads company-wide initiatives, navigating opportunities and challenges at the confluence of scientific frontiers, technology, and society, including strategic efforts in AI, medicine, and the biosciences.

Dr. Horvitz is known for his contributions to AI theory and practice, with a focus on principles and applications of AI amidst the complexities of the open world. His research endeavors have been direction-setting, including harnessing probability and utility in machine learning and reasoning, developing models of bounded rationality, constructing systems that perceive and act via interpreting multisensory streams of information, and pioneering principles and mechanisms for supporting human-AI collaboration and complementarity. His efforts and collaborations have led to fielded systems in healthcare, transportation, ecommerce, operating systems, and aerospace.

Beyond his scientific work, he has pursued programs, organizations, and studies on ethics, values, and safety with applications and influences of AI. He founded and chairs Microsoft's Aether committee on AI, effects, and ethics in engineering and research. He established the One Hundred Year Study on AI at Stanford University and co-founded and serves as board chair of the Partnership on AI (PAI). He served as a Congressionally appointed commissioner on the National Security Commission on AI, where he chaired the line of effort on ethical and trustworthy AI.

Arturo Casadevall, MD, PhD is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and Chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He obtained his B.A. in Chemistry at Queens College of the City University of New York. Previously, he served as Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital and Academic Medical Center for Einstein, from 2000-2006 and as Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology from 2006-2014.

Dr. Casadevall received both his M.D. and Ph.D. (biochemistry) degrees from New York University. Subsequently, he completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Bellevue Hospital in New York. He then completed subspecialty training in infectious diseases at Montefiore and Einstein. The author of over 700 scientific papers, numerous books and book chapters, Dr. Casadevall's major research interests are in fungal pathogenesis and the mechanisms of antibody action. In the area of biodefense, he has an active research program to understand the mechanisms of antibody-mediated neutralization of Bacillus anthracis toxins.

In recent years, Dr. Casadevall has become interested in problems with the scientific enterprise and with his collaborators shown that misconduct accounts for the majority of retracted publications. He has suggested a variety of reforms to the way science is done. Dr. Casadevall is the editor-in-chief of mBio, the first open access general journal of the American Society of Microbiology, and is on the editorial board of several journals including the Journal of Infectious Diseases and the Cell Surface.

He has also served in numerous NIH committees including those that drafted the NIAID Strategic Plan and the Blue Ribbon Panel on Biodefense Research. He served on the National Academy of Sciences panel that reviewed the science on the FBI investigation of the anthrax terror attacks of 2001 and has served on the NAS Committee of Federal Regulations and Reporting requirements. He has also served as a member of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity from 2005-2014. In 2008, he was recognized by the American Society of Microbiology with the William Hinton Award for mentoring scientists from underrepresented groups. In 2015, Dr. Casadevall was appointed a Commissioner to the National Commission on Forensic Science, the United States Department of Justice. He has served as President of the Medical Mycology Society of America, Chair of American Society for Microbiology Division F, Chair of the American Society for Microbiology Career Development Committee, Co-Chair of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Board of Scientific Counselors, and currently serves on the Scientific Council/Advisory Board for the Pasteur Institut and VIB Research Institute in Belgium. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, American College of Physicians and the Association of American Physicians, and was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology. In 2014, he became an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and in 2017, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Frank Pasquale is Professor of Law at Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School. He is an expert on the law of artificial intelligence (AI), algorithms, and machine learning. His books include The Black Box Society (Harvard University Press, 2015) and New Laws of Robotics (Harvard University Press, 2020). He has published more than 70 journal articles and book chapters on topics ranging from technology policy to health law. He co-edited The Oxford Handbook on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Transparent Data Mining for Big and Small Data (Springer-Verlag, 2017).

Before coming to Cornell, Pasquale held chaired professorships at the University of Maryland, Seton Hall University, and Brooklyn Law School. He has also served as a distinguished visiting faculty member at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, visiting professor at Yale Law School, and visiting fellow at Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy. He clerked for Judge Kermit V. Lipez of the First Circuit Court of Appeals, and was an associate at Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C.

Siwei Lyu, PhD is a SUNY Empire Innovation Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Director of the UB Media Forensic Lab (UB MDFL), and the founding Co-Director of the Center for Information Integrity (CII) at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, USA.

Before joining UB, Dr. Lyu served as an Assistant Professor (2008-2014), tenured Associate Professor (2014-2019), and Full Professor (2019-2020) at the Department of Computer Science at the University at Albany, State University of New York. He is the Founding Director of UAlbany's Computer Vision and Machine Learning Lab (CVML). From 2005 to 2008, he worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Center for Neural Science at New York University. In 2001, he was an Assistant Researcher at Microsoft Research Asia. Dr. Lyu earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Dartmouth College in 2005 and both his M.S. (2000) and B.S. (1997) degrees in Computer Science and Information Science, respectively, from Peking University, China.

Dr. Lyu's research interests include media forensics, computer vision, and machine learning. He has published over 190 refereed journal and conference papers. His research projects are funded by NSF, DARPA, and the US Department of Homeland Security. Dr. Lyu has received numerous awards, such as the IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award (2011), the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2010), SUNY Albany's Presidential Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activities (2017), SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activities (2018), Google Faculty Research Award (2019), and IEEE Region 1 Technological Innovation (Academic) Award (2021).

Dr. Lyu has served on the IEEE Signal Processing Society's Information Forensics and Security Technical Committee and held editorial positions with several prestigious journals. Dr. Lyu holds prestigious memberships and distinctions, including being a Fellow of IEEE, IAPR, and AAIA. He is also a Distinguished Member of ACM, a Senior Member of the Sigma Xi Society, and a Member of the Omicron Delta Kappa society.

Kavita Bala, computer scientist, entrepreneur, and professor, became the 17th provost of Cornell University on January 1, 2025.

Bala previously served as the inaugural dean of the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, for which she helped to secure the naming gift, after being named dean of the Faculty for Computing and Information Science in 2020. In her role as dean, Bala led the school through a time of rapid growth. She expanded the faculty by 30%, in a highly competitive market, to meet student demand and fulfill the school's mission to benefit society. Under her leadership, Cornell Bowers CIS secured funding for a new 135,000-square-foot building, set to open in 2025, which will provide space for new labs, experiential student learning, and continued faculty growth.

As the lead dean of the Cornell AI Initiative, Bala has worked toward the creation of minors in AI and AI in Society (to launch in 2025), as well as the establishment of the NewYork Presbyterian–Cornell Cardiovascular AI Initiative and the Schmidt AI in Science postdoctoral program. Bala was also co-chair of a cross-campus task force convened to develop guidelines for generative AI usage in Cornell classes.

During her tenure as dean, Bala prioritized increased access and retention for women and underrepresented populations. As of 2024, women made up 44% of the college's majors – more than twice the national average – and 18% of the majors came from groups underrepresented in computing. To expand access to summer research opportunities, Bala helped establish the Bowers CIS Undergraduate Research Experience (BURE) program. Through her leadership, Bowers CIS will become a degree-granting college in December 2025.

Prior to her dean appointment, Bala was chair of Cornell's Department of Computer Science. As chair, Bala expanded the department's presence in robotics and artificial intelligence, increased opportunities for undergraduate research and entrepreneurship, and expanded diversity efforts for students and faculty.

Bala's research expertise is in computer graphics and computer vision, and she has made fundamental contributions to the fields, including in the rendering of computer-generated images, representing and modeling complex materials, and visual discovery in satellite images and large photo collections. Her current research in computer vision is in visual recognition and discovery in satellite images, and recognition of styles and attributes in images. Her early research focused on realistic, physically-based rendering and includes seminal work on scalable rendering, notably the development of approximate illumination algorithms, as well as deep contributions to modeling of textiles.

Bala received a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Marcia McNutt is a geophysicist and president of the National Academy of Sciences. From 2013 to 2016, she served as editor-in-chief of the Science journals. Prior to joining Science, she was director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) from 2009 to 2013.

During her tenure, the USGS responded to a number of major disasters, including earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, and Japan, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. McNutt led a team of government scientists and engineers at BP headquarters in Houston who helped contain the oil and cap the well. She directed the flow rate technical group that estimated the rate of oil discharge during the spill's active phase. For her contributions, she was awarded the U.S. Coast Guard's Meritorious Service Medal.

Before joining the USGS, McNutt served as president and chief executive officer of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), in Moss Landing, California. During her time at MBARI, the institution became a leader in developing biological and chemical sensors for remote ocean deployment, installed the first deep-sea cabled observatory in U.S. waters, and advanced the integration of artificial intelligence into autonomous underwater vehicles for complex undersea missions.

From 2000 to 2002, McNutt served as president of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). She was chair of the Board of Governors for Joint Oceanographic Institutions, responsible for operating the International Ocean Drilling Program's vessel JOIDES Resolution and associated research programs.

McNutt began her academic career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she was the E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and directed the Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science & Engineering, jointly offered by MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Her research area is the dynamics of the upper mantle and lithosphere on geologic time scales, work that has taken her to distant continents and oceans for field observations. She is a veteran of more than a dozen deep-sea expeditions, on most of which she was chief or co-chief scientist.

Maria Blumenkrantz is a 4th year PhD Candidate in the Cell, Molecular, and Biomedical Studies (CMBS) program at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Mark Hansen is the David and Helen Gurley Brown Professor of Journalism and Innovation and Director of the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation.

Mark Hansen joined Columbia Journalism School in July 2012 and took on the position of inaugural director of the east coast branch of the Brown Institute for Media Innovation. Prior to joining Columbia, he was a professor at UCLA, holding appointments in the Department of Statistics, the Department of Design Media Arts and the Department of Electrical Engineering. He was also a Co-PI for Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, an NSF Science and Technology Center devoted to the study of sensor networks. Prior to UCLA, Hansen was a Member of the Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

For nearly three decades, Hansen has been working at the intersection of data, art and technology. Hansen has an active art practice involving the presentation of data for the public. His work with Ben Rubin, Jer Thorp and The Office for Creative Research has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, the London Science Museum, the Cartier Foundation in Paris, and the lobbies of the New York Times building and the Public Theater (permanent displays) in Manhattan.

In terms of his journalistic experience, Hansen has been a long-standing visiting researcher at the New York Times R&D Lab, a late-career intern at the Marshall Project, and a consultant with HBO Sports. Hansen teaches mainly advanced data analysis and computational journalism at Columbia. In 2018, Hansen's Computational Journalism course at Columbia Journalism School contributed the original reporting for the New York Times' piece, The Follower Factory, which exposed the bot economy behind the sale of fake followers on Twitter. In July 2018, the article was cited by Twitter as the reason for its "purge" of tens of millions of suspicious accounts.

Hansen holds a B.S. in Applied Math from the University of California, Davis, and a Ph.D and M.A. in Statistics from the University of California, Berkeley. He has been awarded eight patents and has published over 60 papers in data science, statistics and computer science.

Despina Kontos, PhD is a computer scientist with expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analytics for multi-modality imaging data. She is the chief research information officer for Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). She is also the vice chair of artificial intelligence and data science research in the Department of Radiology at CUIMC and director of biomarker imaging at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital—with additional appointments in the Departments of Biomedical Informatics and Biomedical Engineering.

Dr. Kontos is the founding director of Columbia University's Center for Innovation in Imaging Biomarkers and Integrated Diagnostics (CIMBID), a multidisciplinary center dedicated to developing and integrating quantitative imaging and non-imaging biomarkers for personalized disease prediction, particularly in cancer.

Dr. Kontos has made seminal contributions to the leveraging of artificial intelligence tools for risk prediction in breast and lung cancer. Her research program focuses on investigating the role of imaging as a quantitative biomarker for improving cancer screening, prognostication, and treatment. She has developed innovative computational methodologies that have enabled the investigation of novel cancer phenotypic biomarkers via imaging, and has translated these biomarkers through extensive clinical and epidemiologic studies to answer important research questions for personalizing cancer care.

With a primary focus on breast cancer, her work has contributed to a fundamental transition in the interpretation of breast cancer images, by showing that imaging data can be mined to extract sophisticated phenotypic signatures with independent diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive value. Her lab is also pursuing related research in lung cancers, specifically on evaluating the integration of CT radiomic features with liquid biopsy data to characterize lung tumor heterogeneity for predicting response to targeted therapy and immunotherapy.

Dr. Kontos is the recipient of numerous grants from both federal agencies and private foundations, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Defense (DOD), the American Cancer Society (ACS), and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). She is the author of more than 100 publications in high-impact journals, and her lectures have gained national recognition.

Dr. Kontos studied engineering as an undergraduate at the University of Patras in Greece. She received her PhD in computer and information sciences from Temple University in Philadelphia, followed by postdoc training in radiology at the University of Pennsylvania. She has certificates in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania; Cancer Biology and Targeted Therapeutics from Harvard University; and AI for Decision Making: Business Strategies and Applications from the Wharton School of Business. Dr. Kontos is a member of the RSNA Research & Education Foundation Fund Development Committee.

Dr. Reginald W. Miller serves as the Dean for Research Operations and Infrastructure and is responsible for the oversight of ISMMS Biosafety, Environmental Health and Safety, Laboratory Safety including the Select Agents and Toxins Program (Operations), Core Facilities and Shared Resources (Vivarium) as well as Basic Science Laboratory Infrastructure (Infrastructure).

He is also the Chief Export Controls Officer (ECO) for the Mount Sinai Health System. Responsibilities within this role include ensuring government guidance and policies for research compliance are followed throughout Mount Sinai.

Dr. Miller's other roles at Mount Sinai included serving as the Co-Chair for the Diversity in Biomedical Research Council, and Professor roles for Comparative Medicine and Surgery as well as for Environmental Medical and Public Health.

Kaia Motter is Head of Academic Affairs, North America at Springer Nature where she leads academic affairs activities in the US and Canada, building relationships and collaborating with funders, institutions, and other non-profit organizations in the region.

Kaia has a background in publishing, having held editorial positions at Elsevier and Wiley. In recent years, her work has been centered on open science development, policy, and outreach with a topical focus on research assessment reform, research integrity, AI, and other issues impacting the research community.

Ai Yamamoto, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Pathology and Cell Biology. Dr. Yamamoto became faculty in 2008, after completing her postdoctoral work with Dr. James E. Rothman, and her dissertation work with Dr. Rene Hen.

Dr. Yamamoto's work focuses on the cellular events that impact neurological disorders, with a particular focus on how the cellular pathway autophagy impacts the developing and aging brain. Dr. Yamamoto has co-directed and continues to teach for BCMBII (Lectures on Autophagy), and co-directs with Dr. Hemali Phatnani a course on Management Skills and Leadership in Science.

Dr. Yamamoto serves as a member of the MSTP Advisory Committee at Columbia University, as well as on several scientific boards including the Hereditary Disease Foundation and the Project ALS. She has served on several NIH study sections, and is currently a permanent member of Cellular Dysfunction in Neurodegeneration (CDIN). She has been a co-director of the Neurobiology and Behavior Graduate program since 2018.

Jeannette M. Wing is the Executive Vice President for Research at Columbia University and Professor of Computer Science. In her EVPR role, she has overall responsibility for the University's research enterprise at all New York locations and internationally. The New York locations include the Morningside and Manhattanville campuses, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Nevis Laboratories. She joined Columbia in 2017 as the inaugural Avanessians Director of the Data Science Institute.

Prior to Columbia, Dr. Wing was Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Research, served on the faculty and as department head in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, and served as Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Wing's research contributions have been in the areas of trustworthy AI, security and privacy, specification and verification, concurrent and distributed systems, programming languages, and software engineering. Her 2006 seminal essay, titled "Computational Thinking," is credited with helping to establish the centrality of computer science to problem-solving in fields where previously it had not been embraced, and thereby influencing K-12 and university curricula worldwide.

She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. She received distinguished service awards from the ACM and the Computing Research Association and an honorary doctorate degree from Linköping University, Sweden. She earned her bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in computer science, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sri Narasimhan is Deputy Editor at Cell where she leads journal strategy, inclusion and diversity efforts as well as publication of microbiology, immunology and metabolism content. She also oversees Cell's connection with Cell Press and manages cross-journal communication and collaboration initiatives in the organization.

Sri trained in microbiology, molecular genetics and metabolism at the National University of Singapore, UMASS Medical School and Harvard Medical School before joining Cell Press in 2012. She is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Lawrence Lustig, MD is an Otolaryngologist who specializes in Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery. Dr Lustig grew up in Northern California, and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He graduated from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine, where he also completed his Otolaryngology residency. After residency, Dr Lustig completed his Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University and remained on staff at Johns Hopkins through 2004. In 2004 he was recruited back to UCSF to lead the Division of Otology and Neurotology in the Otolaryngology Department. In 2014, he was recruited to Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Hospital where he practices today as the Howard W. Smith Professor and Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology.

Dr. Lustig's interdisciplinary research has helped pioneer cochlear gene therapy for genetic forms of hearing loss. He is also one of the lead investigators for the Otoferlin gene therapy trial sponsored by Regeneron. Prior work in his lab has included studies on cochlear bone development and how the material properties of bone enclosing the inner ear contribute to hearing. Dr. Lustig is considered one of the foremost authorities on cochlear implants in the United States.

Dr. Lustig has published more than 125 articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as numerous book chapters. He has co-edited several textbooks, including "Clinical Neurotology: Diagnosing and Managing Disorders of Hearing, Balance and the Facial Nerve" and "Disorders of the Vestibular System." He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Otology & Neurotology, the foremost medical journal in his subspeciality.

Dr. Susan Garfinkel is the owner of Research Integrity Partners, LLC, offering support to institutions and Research Integrity Officers in managing research misconduct and integrity issues, as well as assisting editors and publishers with publication ethics challenges. Formerly, she held the role of Associate Vice President for Research Compliance at The Ohio State University, where she was responsible for developing, implementing, and leading programs and policies to ensure the university's compliance with federal, state, and private sponsor requirements and fostering ethical research practices.

Dr. Garfinkel's career includes her role as the Director of Research Grants for a non-profit organization that funded research in age-related degenerative diseases and stem cell research, and Program Officer at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This diverse background provides her with unique insights into research funding, compliance, and integrity issues from multiple perspectives.

In addition to her leadership roles, she has been faculty for conferences to train State and Federal court judges on various scientific and technologic issues related to genetics and molecular biology. Dr. Garfinkel is a founding member of the Asian Pacific Rim Research Integrity network (APRI), demonstrating her commitment to advancing research integrity on a global scale. She also serves as a Board of Trustee member for the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), further contributing to the development of ethical standards in scholarly publishing.

Naomi Schrag is the Vice President for Research Compliance, Training, and Policy in the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research, and the University's Research Integrity Officer (RIO). She oversees work on issues such as research misconduct, conflict-of-interest and international research compliance, and collaborates closely with other offices across the University to develop integrated approaches to compliance and training.

Before joining Columbia in January 2006, Ms. Schrag practiced law for nine years, focusing on regulatory compliance and litigation involving biomedical research, with clients including pharmaceutical companies and not-for-profit organizations. Ms. Schrag also clerked in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Ms. Schrag graduated from New York University School of Law in 1995. Before entering law school, she worked on an oral history of the Holocaust for the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

Roles and Responsibilities

Dr. Anderson Smith is the Assistant Director for Research Compliance Education for the Office of Research Compliance and Training. His work focuses on creating educational programs on research compliance and research ethics for the Columbia research community, including faculty and staff, students, and post-doctoral research fellows.

Academic Background

Dr. Smith earned his Ph.D. in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, where he also earned a Master's in Philosophy and a Master's in Education for the teaching of English. He received his Master's in Fine Arts for Creative Writing from Manhattanville College.

Research and Presentations

Dr. Smith has conducted seminars and lectures at various conferences, including the American Educational Research Association (AERA), National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA), and National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), around literacy and metacognition. His research focused on the effects of literature when used in service to people with criminal conviction histories post-incarceration.

Roles and Responsibilities

Dr. Lefort is the Assistant Director for Research Integrity and Compliance. His work focuses on promoting research and data integrity through various workshops and trainings, research group consultations and development of resources to aid in the conduct of research. He also works on matters concerning conflict-of-interest and research misconduct.

Academic Background

Dr. Lefort received his PhD in Molecular Medicine from Columbia University Irving Medical Center in 2011. For six years, his research focused on the molecular mechanism of neurodegeneration and synaptic dysfunction in neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and Angelman syndrome.