2024 Spring Member Meeting

Speaker Biographies

Keynote: The Future is Now: The AI Transformation of  Higher Education 

Keith Webster was appointed Dean of University Libraries at Carnegie Mellon University in July 2013 and was additionally appointed as Director of Emerging and Integrative Media Initiatives in July 2015 and Posner Dean’s Chair in 2021. He also has a courtesy academic appointment at the University’s H. John Heinz III College. Previously, Keith was Vice President and Director of Academic Relations and Strategy for the global publishing company John Wiley and Sons. He was formerly Dean of Libraries and University Librarian at the University of Queensland in Australia, leading one of the largest universities and hospital library services in the southern hemisphere. Earlier positions include University Librarian at Victoria University in New Zealand, Head of Information Policy at HM Treasury, London, and Director of Information Services at the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London.

Keith has held professorships in information science at Victoria University of Wellington and City University, London. He is a Chartered Fellow and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (UK), and has served on government advisory boards, journal editorial boards, and as an officer in professional and learned societies around the world. He was Chair of the National Information Standards Organization in 2018/19.

Keith’s professional interests include research evaluation, learning space design, and trends in scholarly communication. He is a regular speaker on topics such as the future of research libraries and the impact of open science on publishing and libraries.

Panel on DORA and Research Assessment

Dr. Haley Hazlett is the Program Manager of the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), a global non-profit initiative to advance practical and robust approaches for responsible assessment in hiring, tenure, promotion, and funding decisions. After receiving her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology, Dr. Hazlett moved into the science policy, advocacy, and diplomacy field, becoming DORA’s Program Manager in 2021. In her time working for DORA, she has served as Acting Program Director; managed global community outreach and advocacy efforts; supported the creation of policy and advocacy resources; researched and reported extensively on responsible assessment practices; and she has represented DORA on advisory boards and steering committees for organizations including ASAPbio, the Research on Research Institute, and the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA).

Yves Gingras, professor of history at UQAM, is an internationally recognized researcher in the history and sociology of science, drawing on both in-depth historical surveys and the analysis of scientometric data. He has worked on the history of scientific disciplines (notably physics and molecular biology), the internationalization of science, the spatial distribution of research activities on a global scale, and the construction and (mis)use of bibliometric indicators in research evaluation.

Tony Michel is the Senior Policy Advisor to the Vice-President of Research, at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He has worked in strategic policy in the federal public service for over 17 years, including at Global Affairs Canada and the Department of Canadian Heritage, with a special focus on inclusive public policy. He has a PhD in the History of Post-Confederation Canada.

National PID Strategy – Where are we, what is next, and how can libraries further help? 

John Aspler, Manager of the Canadian Persistent Identifier Community at CRKN-RCDR,  graduated from McGill with a PhD in Neuroscience, where his passion for public science literacy led him to work on projects on media discourse about neurodevelopmental diagnoses. In his role at CRKN, John combines his love of scholarship with a love of libraries by dedicating himself to community service and knowledge access.

Marc-Etienne Rousseau, Director, Research Software at McGill University, joined the McGill VPRI Office in 2020 after more than 15 years of experience helping researchers build tools to manage, share and process their data. Marc leads the Digital Research Services (DRS) team, a unique collaboration between VPRI, Library and IT, which assists McGill researchers in navigating the increasingly complex digital research ecosystem. Prior to rejoining McGill, he worked with Compute Canada and the Montreal Neuro where he led the conception of cyberinfrastructure platforms for international research collaborations. Marc has a dual background in Life Science and Computer Science, allowing him to bridge the knowledge gaps between researchers from various disciplines and experts working in the Information Technologies landscape. Marc has served on several national cyberinfrastructure committees with Compute Canada, The Digital Research Alliance of Canada and CANARIE where he shared his enthusiasm and vision for accessible research-enabling technologies.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6281-1691