Aug 31: Opening keynote + panel ft. Jordan Jacobs, Garth Gibson, Leah Cowen, and Alan Bernstein

We’re less than 2 weeks away from the Acceleration Consortium’s (AC) first annual Accelerate conference in Toronto, Aug 30–Sept 2, 2022. Based at the University of Toronto, the AC is a global community of academia, government, and industry who are accelerating the discovery of new materials and molecules needed for a sustainable future.

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Don’t miss your chance to register for the Acceleration Consortium’s first annual Accelerate Conference in Toronto, August 30–September 2, 2022. With the conference just around the corner, we’re excited to announce our opening keynote (August 31, 10:00 AM) with Jordan Jacobs, Managing Partner and co-founder of Radical Ventures, an early-stage VC fund investing in artificial intelligence (AI) companies. 

With many tech hubs around the world vying to take the lead in the AI space, Jacobs will discuss what it will take to build a robust AI ecosystem in Canada. After his talk, Jacobs will continue the conversation about Canada’s path to owning the podium in AI-driven innovation in a panel discussion also featuring: 

• Alan Bernstein (President & CEO of CIFAR) 

• Garth Gibson (President and CEO of the Vector Institute) 

• Moderated by Leah Cowen (Vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives at the University of Toronto)

Opening keynote and panellists 

• Jordan Jacobs is Managing Partner and co-founder of Radical Ventures, an early-stage VC fund investing in Artificial Intelligence companies. Before Radical, Jordan co-founded Layer 6 AI and was co-CEO prior to its acquisition by TD Bank Group where he joined as Chief AI Officer (Business & Strategy). Jordan is also a founder of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Toronto, a concept he devised with Radical Ventures and Layer 6 co-founder Tomi Poutanen and Professor Geoffrey Hinton. Jordan is a Director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), which administers on behalf of the Government of Canada the world’s first national AI strategy, which Jordan helped author. Jordan is also a member of the University of Waterloo President's International Advisory Board, a Director of Tennis Canada, and has been selected as one of Toronto’s 50 Most Influential People. Read complete bio. 

• Alan Bernstein is President & CEO of CIFAR, where he has elevated CIFAR to become one of the world's preeminent global research organizations.  He is one of Canada’s leading scientists, with over 225 peer-reviewed publications with landmark contributions to hematopoiesis, retrovirology and cancer. He has also authored or co-authored over 70 opinion pieces in the press in Canada and the US on the importance of science and research to improving health and well-being. Between 2000-2007, he served as the founding president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) where he led the country through a major transformation in the organization and funding of health research. Read complete bio. 

• As a leader in research, advanced education and commercial collaboration, Dr. Garth Gibson bridges the worlds of academia and business. This unique combination ideally positions him to lead the Vector Institute in its mandate to drive Canada’s leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) research, fostering economic growth and improving the lives of Canadians. Dr. Gibson has held a number of leadership positions at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, including as Professor in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Co-Director of its Master of Computational Data Science program, and Associate Dean for Master’s Programs in the School of Computer Science, overseeing 20 Master’s programs with over 1,000 enrolled students who are in high-demand upon graduation. Read complete bio. 

And here's nearly 60 more reasons to register 

Meet our confirmed Accelerate conference speakers and panellists: 

• Ben Alston, Gearu Labs 

• Alan Aspuru-Guzik, University of Toronto 

• Milad Abolhasani, North Carolina State University 

• Sterling Baird, University of Utah 

• Curtis Berlinguette, University of British Columbia 

• Alan Bernstein, CIFAR 

• Christoph Brabec, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg 

• Keith Brown, Boston University 

• Maria Chan, Argonne National Laboratory 

• Zamyla Chan, Acceleration Consortium 

• John Chodera, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center 

• Adrienne Clement, Creative Destruction Lab 

• Caroline Cloutier, National Research Council Canada 

• Steven Cranford, Cell Press 

• Ali Dolatabadi, University of Toronto 

• Brian DeCost, NIST 

• Dan Falk, Science journalist 

• Jon French, University of Toronto 

• Pascal Friederich, KIT 

• Joshua Gans, University of Toronto 

• Animesh Garg, University of Toronto 

• Garth Gibson, Vector Institute 

• Adam Gormley, Rutgers University 

• Johannes Hachmann, University at Buffalo 

• Alexander Hammer, Dunia 

• Jason Hattrick-Simpers, University of Toronto 

• Jason Hein, University of British Columbia 

• Thomas Heine, TU Dresden 

• Brett Helms, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 

• Kedar Hippalgaonkar, Nanyang Technological University 

• Riley Hickman, University of Toronto 

• Jordan Jacobs, Radical Ventures 

• Yousung Jung, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology 

• Mark Kozdras, Natural Resources Canada 

• Eugenia Kumacheva, University of Toronto 

• Ha-Kyung Kwon, Toyota Research Institute 

• Alexander Lavin, Pasteur Labs & ISI 

• Anatole von Lilienfeld, University of Toronto 

• Benji Maruyama, Air Force Research Laboratory 

• Austin McDannald, NIST 

• R. J. Dwayne Miller, University of Toronto 

• Michelle Murphy, University of Toronto 

• Deval Pandya, Vector Institute 

• Gabriella Pizzuto, University of Liverpool 

• Lilo D. Pozzo, University of Washington 

• Benjamin Sanchez-Lengeling, Google Brain 

• Bradley Schmidt, Chemspeed Technologies AG 

• Joshua Schrier, Fordham University 

• Florian Shkurti, University of Toronto 

• Chandra Singh, University of Toronto 

• Shijing Sun, Toyota Research Institute 

• Anjuli Swaziola, Natural Resources Canada 

• Mitra Taheri, Johns Hopkins University 

• Karen Temple, University of Toronto 

• Helen Tran, University of Toronto 

• Wil de Vega, Mitacs 

• Richard Walroth, Genentech 

• Jie Xu, Argonne National Laboratory