The Quebec research consortium IVADO this week announced the appointment of Universit茅 de Montr茅al computer science professor Aaron Courville as its interim scientific director.
He replaces his colleague Yoshua Bengio, who takes on a new role at IVADO as special advisor.
Globally recognized for his research in machine learning, Courville has served as a scientific advisor at IVADO since 2022. He will oversee the transition to a new scientific director to be named this spring; applications are now open.
A founding member of Mila 鈥� Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, Courville focuses his research on reinforcement learning, deep generative models, and multimodal learning, with applications in computer vision and natural language processing.
In 2016, he, Bengio and Bengio鈥檚 Ph.D. student Ian Goodfellow co-authored the foundational textbook of their field, Deep Learning. Today Courville holds a Canada CIFAR AI Chair and a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Systematic Generalization.
Bengio takes on new role
A key figure since IVADO鈥檚 inception (he was its founding scientific director), in his new role as special advisor Bengio will have more time to concentrate on his research on AI safety and his global AI policy initiatives.
He remains actively engaged in IVADO鈥檚 mission and will continue to serve on its scientific committee as well as serve on its international committee.
Bengio also co-leads IVADO鈥檚 Research Cluster 10, focused on , and is a co-organizer of an upcoming thematic semester on Large Language Models.
"I want to express my deep admiration and gratitude to Yoshua for his inspiration, dedication, and exceptional collaboration as IVADO鈥檚 scientific director," said IVADO executive director Luc Vinet.
"Under his scientific leadership, IVADO recently launched the IAR3 project鈥攁rguably one of Canada鈥檚 most ambitious AI research and innovation initiatives,鈥� said Vinet, a former UdeM rector.
鈥淗is contributions have been fundamental. I am delighted that, in this new role, his involvement and collaboration will continue to be invaluable, as he remains committed to IVADO鈥檚 growing leadership."
A call for applications
As Bengio steps aside and Courville steps in, IVADO is launching a call for applications for a new permanent scientific director.
To that end, the organization is seeking a visionary leader capable of mobilizing the community and advancing IVADO鈥檚 strategic ambitions both locally and internationally.
Candidates have until April 11 at midnight to submit their applications. Full details can be found on .
A selection committee made up of Vinet, five representatives from IVADO鈥檚 five partner universities and three members from affiliated organizations will review applications and make a recommendation to IVADO鈥檚 management team.
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