Leila Kosseim

Prof. Kosseim has shown outstanding leadership in CAIAC during her time as Vice President (2017–2019), President (2019–2021), and Past President (2021–2023). As President, she led several key initiatives, including introducing an open-access publication model for the Canadian AI conference. This made Canadian research more accessible and visible to the global community. She also helped launch a special track on Responsible AI at Canadian AI, highlighting the importance of ethical and socially aware artificial intelligence. As part of this effort, she mentored students in the track, supporting their growth as responsible and thoughtful researchers. Prof. Kosseim worked hard to make CAIAC more transparent and inclusive, creating opportunities for collaboration and giving underrepresented groups a stronger voice in the community. By encouraging participation from early-career researchers, women, and equity-seeking groups, she fostered a welcoming and diverse environment. Her leadership has modernized CAIAC and strengthened its reputation as a home for innovative and inclusive AI research.

Her contributions extend beyond CAIAC. Prof. Kosseim has served as Program Co-Chair for Canadian AI 2012, a member of the CAIAC Doctoral Dissertation Award Committee (several times), and has been an active organizer and steering committee member for several national and international events, including the Journée francophone des femmes en informatique (JFFI) and CS-Can Francophone Women in Computing Day. Her dedication to nurturing talent is evident through her mentorship of highly qualified personnel, having supervised over 40 graduate and undergraduate students, many of whom now hold influential positions in academia and industry.

Prof. Kosseim’s editorial and review roles further underscore her impact. She has served as an Associate Editor for the Computational Intelligence journal and has contributed to numerous program committees for leading conferences such as ACL, EMNLP, and COLING. Her research, which spans natural language processing and discourse analysis, has consistently advanced the field, as evidenced by her numerous publications and awards.