It has been a year and one month since I wrote in this substack blog. As you will see from the update, I have been quite busy with various things and, therefore, have focused on work rather than disseminating through this platform. Inspired by my colleague Joshua Gans, who actively uses substack, I decided to use a snowy winter afternoon to give you an update! I will briefly discuss what has been going on since my last post and why I have been busy.
I will take the opportunity of writing several small posts focused on some of the updates since the last year. Rather than making them long and complicated, I will try to simply describe one development and "catch up" with you all one topic at a time. So without further a due, let us focus on the topic of this first post.
The Acceleration Consortium
Since I last wrote to you, a significant development is that we have successfully launched the Acceleration Consortium, a University of Toronto-led but global in nature. The consortium is a network that aims to accelerate scientific discovery by using technologies such as automation AI and high-throughput screening. I became the consortium director, and we have been growing a team that includes great colleagues such as Padriac Foley, Zamyla Chan, and Erin Warner (shown below in left-to-right, and pardon the image quality! You see, I am trading perfection for actually writing something here periodically).
The consortium involves several organizations, including many universities around the globe, the National Research Council, Natural Resources Canada, and the Vector Institute. Several faculty around the world have joined the consortium. We also are building a network of large and small, and medium enterprises that will be announced in detail soon as we continue to sign them on to our activities. A new website of the consortium is launching soon (this effort is led by the amazing Erin Warner), where many more activities will be discussed. The consortium has its own Substack, so feel free to subscribe to learn more!
The flurry of activities at the University of Toronto related to the consortium is impressive. For example, we recruited Professor Jason Hattrick-Simpers to our department of Materials Science, who substantially strengthens our program on AI-driven materials research.
The consortium already announced a postdoctoral fellows program (and fellowship announcements will be made soon!). Also, it successfully carried out hackathon programs and online workshops. This is just the beginning, so make sure to follow the consortium on Twitter and stay tuned for what it has in mind!