Research Security in Today's Geo-Political Era
Monday, February 27 - Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Federation Hall, University of Waterloo
Research Security has become a growing concern for academic institutions, the Canadian government, researchers, and the wider public. Research security broadly refers to the means to protect expertise, data, technology, and know-how that could help hostile states, criminal organizations, or commercial competitors to advance their geopolitical, economic, and security interests at the expense of Canada’s national interest. This can include stealing, cyber-attacks, interfering, and transferring researchers’ proprietary knowledge and IP from Canada without their consent or knowledge.
From raising awareness and understanding among faculty on the appropriate application of potential policies and procedures regarding legal protection of IP, export control of dual use technologies, and the growing requirements of tri-council research grant agencies, the issue of safeguarding of academic research from potential foreign threat actors has increased in importance. The geopolitical environment necessitates this increased threat awareness. This two-day workshop at the University of Waterloo serves to share some of the concerns of stakeholders on all things related to research security. The workshop will feature panels of academics with expertise on the threat to research from foreign actors, leaders of various funding agencies, senior government officials working on national security, public safety, and national defence.
This workshop will help build broad awareness among the academic community regarding the importance of research security, the type of known risks to research, provide direction and guidance on how to protect their research and assess risks in partnerships, and provide attendees an opportunity to ask questions of experts and various government representatives.
Please register below.
** Registration has closed**
Day 1 Agenda: February 27, 2023
Time |
Session |
|---|---|
9:00 - 9:30 a.m. |
Opening remarksDr. Charmaine Dean, Vice-President Research and International at the University of Waterloo will provide opening remarks and land acknowledgements. |
9:30 - 10:50 a.m. |
Emerging TechnologiesThis panel looks at trends in emerging technologies from AI and machine learning, electrochemical energy storage, nanotechnology, quantum, robotics, to virtual reality. How has the global race for emerging technologies and supply chain resilience in minerals accelerated in recent years? What countries lead in the development of these emerging technologies and critical minerals and what are countries' gaps in knowledge and development? Moderator: Bessma Momani, Political Science, University of Waterloo Speakers:
Question and answer period to follow |
10:50 - 11:00 a.m. |
Break |
11:00 - 12:20 p.m. |
International Security and Research SecurityThis panel examines the geo-political context, threat landscape, and global and national security concerns for Canada and Canadian universities. What are the threats to global research cooperation, knowledge mobilization, and scientific and technological innovation? What are the key research security threats and vulnerabilities for Canada? What are the implications of growing research security threats for Canada’s national security, geopolitical objectives, and engagement in the global arena? How do we advance collaborative research while protecting academic freedom? Moderator: Veronica Kitchen, Political Science, University of Waterloo Speakers:
Question and answer period to follow |
12:30 - 1:50 p.m. |
Lunch and panel presentationAddressing and Challenging Racial DiscriminationSpeaker: Mohammed Hashim, Canada Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) In conversation with Mohammed Hashim, Executive Director of Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF), Dr. Charmaine Dean will have a candid exchange on how universities can fight against racism on their campuses that can arise from scrutiny over research security. The CRRF is committed to building a national framework for the fight against racism in Canadian society and do this through knowledge-sharing and community support in the pursuit of equity, fairness, social justice and systemic change. The panel serves to inform faculty, administrators, and researchers on how to guard against racism when working toward safeguarding their science and research. |
2:00 - 3:20 p.m. |
Dual Use and MilitarizationThis panel looks at how technologies can have civilian and military uses, considering the need to balance the competing objectives of innovation and knowledge mobilization on the one hand, and public safety, risk and harm reduction, and national security concerns on the other. What are the most important technological domains related to dual use that trigger national security concerns for Canada? What are the specific types of technology of greatest concern? What criteria can researchers and administrators use to gauge either the potential or likely application of civilian use into military applications? In what ways do foreign companies and foreign militaries transition commercial entities into military products? What do researchers need to know about the latest trends in assessing dual-use technological developments? Moderator: Justin Nankivell, University of Waterloo Speakers:
Question and answer period to follow |
3:20 - 3:30 p.m. |
Break |
3:30 - 5:00 p.m. |
Foreign Interference in Canadian UniversitiesThis panel focuses on the growing threat and interference in Canadian universities and research institutes by foreign and external state and non-state actors and the mounting threat to research integrity and autonomy within Canada’s research institutions. What are the primary threat actors and threat vectors for Canadian universities and research institutes? How can Canada respond to the growing challenge of adversarial state action in research settings while continuing to remain globally competitive, connected, and innovative? What is the nature of the threat to health and natural sciences, applied sciences, and the social sciences? Moderator: David Welch, University of Waterloo Speakers:
Question and answer period to follow |
Day 2 Agenda: February 28, 2023
Time |
Session |
|---|---|
9:00 - 10:20 a.m. |
Developing Adaptive Approaches to an Evolving Threat This panel will examine the past and future evolution of foreign interference activity and other threats to research security and explore options for collective response. What is the nexus between scientific and technological developments and national security? How can the Canadian research and governmental community equip itself to anticipate future developments and disruptions in a way that maximizes positive impacts and mitigates risks? How can we build collective resilience to foreign interference and create an agile, responsive, and cooperative framework for research security in Canada? Moderator: Justin Nankivell, University of Waterloo Speakers:
Question and answer period to follow |
10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. |
Supporting Research OfficesThis panel brings together individuals who can provide support to research offices and help them navigate the grant application process. How can research offices be supported while encouraging the research and commercialization of discovery through research funding programs and international R&D collaborations. This session aims to provide strategies for risk reduction, enhance research security, and review compliance criteria and best practices of risk assessment. How can the government and Canadian universities facilitate a cooperative relationship in research security that does not undermine the institutional autonomy of universities? Moderator: Ian Milligan, University of Waterloo Speakers:
Question and answer period to follow |
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. |
Lunch |
1:30 - 2:30 p.m. |
Using Automation and OSINT to Increase Efficiency and Rigour of Research Risk AssessmentsThoroughly evaluating each research project for potential security risks as required by the National Security Guidelines for Research Projects is a labour-intensive process. In response to this challenge, the U15 Canada has been developing tools to help institutions efficiently and rigorously identify and evaluate the “know your research” risks identified in the Guidelines. In this session, Mike will discuss some of the sources being used and demonstrate the tools being created. The presentation will be followed by a short Q&A. Mike Matheson, U-15 Canada |
2:45 - 4:00 p.m. |
Interactive Feedback SessionUsing online tools, this session will collect the feedback and suggestions of conference attendees to feed into the conference report, improve intra-university processes, and make recommendations to policymakers working in the research security space. |
Speakers
Emerging Technologies
Daniel Araya, PhD
Senior Fellow
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Daniel Araya is a CIGI senior fellow, a senior partner with the World Legal Summit, and a consultant and an adviser with a special interest in artificial intelligence, technology policy and governance. At CIGI, his work contributes to research on autonomous systems in global governance and looks specifically at the best ways to mitigate the negative effects of the widespread deployment of new technologies.
Daniel is a regular contributor to various media outlets and organizations such as Forbes, the Brookings Institution, Futurism and Singularity Hub. He has been invited to speak at a number of universities and research centres, including the US Naval Postgraduate School; Harvard University; the American Enterprise Institute; the Center for Global Policy Solutions; Stanford University; the University of Toronto; the University of California, Santa Cruz; and Microsoft Research. His most recent books include Augmented Intelligence: Smart Systems and the Future of Work and Learning (2018) and Smart Cities as Democratic Ecologies (2015). Daniel has a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Sushanta Mitra, PhD
Professor, Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering
Executive Director, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN)
University of Waterloo
Sushanta Mitra is a full Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering and is cross-appointed as a Professor of Chemical Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Physics & Astronomy, and Chemistry at the University of Waterloo. He serves as the Executive Director of Canada’s largest nanotechnology institute – the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN). Before joining Waterloo, he had several administrative roles in Canadian higher education, including Department Chair (Lassonde School of Engineering), Associate Vice-President Research (York University) and Assistant Vice-President Research (University of Alberta). He also served as the President of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering. For his contributions to science and engineering, he has been elected a fellow of several professional organizations, including the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a foreign fellow of both the Indian National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences India. He has an entrepreneurial mind, being the Founder & CEO of a Canadian startup, Aquabits Inc. (on quantum computing) and a Dutch startup, SLE Enterprises B.V. (on ultra-fast encapsulation technology), supported by the University of Waterloo.
Michele Mosca, DPhil
Institute for Quantum Computing
University of Waterloo
Michele Mosca obtained a BMath at Waterloo in 1995 and was recipient of the Mathematics Faculty Alumni Gold Medal. He went to Wolfson College, University of Oxford, on a Commonwealth Scholarship, and received an MSc in Mathematics and the Foundations of Computer Science (with Distinction) in 1996. He continued at Oxford, obtaining a DPhil in quantum computer algorithms in 1999 while holding the Robin Gandy Junior Research Fellowship.
In 1999 he started Waterloo’s effort in quantum computing, with the support of the Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research, St. Jerome’s University, and his home department, Combinatorics & Optimization (C&O). He is currently Full Professor in the C&O Department of the Faculty of Mathematics. He also has cross-appointments in Computer Science and Physics & Astronomy. He is co-founder of CryptoWorks21, a training program in quantum-safe cryptography. He also initiated the Quantum Cryptography Summer School for Young Scientists (QCSYS) at IQC.
Mosca has made major contributions to the theory and practice of quantum information processing, particularly in the areas of quantum algorithms, techniques for studying the limitations of quantum computers, quantum self-testing and private quantum channels.
Together with collaborators at Oxford, he realized several of the first implementations of quantum algorithms using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. He also made major contributions to the phase estimation approach to quantum algorithms, including the hidden subgroup problems, and quantum searching and counting. In the area of quantum security, he helped define the notion of private quantum channels and develop optimal methods for encrypting quantum information using classical keys.
His current research interests include quantum computation, cryptographic tools designed to be safe against quantum technologies, and software tools for quantum information processing systems.
He is globally recognized for his drive to help academia, industry and government prepare our cyber systems to be safe in an era with quantum computers.
He was a founder of the ETSI-IQC workshop series in Quantum-Safe Cryptography which brings together a broad range of stakeholders working toward globally standardized quantum-safe cryptography. He co-founded evolutionQ Inc. to provide services and products that enable organizations to evolve their quantum-vulnerable systems and practices to quantum-safe ones.
His work is published widely in top journals, and he co-authored the respected textbook “An Introduction to Quantum Computing” (OUP). Mosca has won numerous academic awards and honours, including 2010 Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, the Premier’s Research Excellence Award (2000-2005), Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) since 2010, Canada Research Chair in Quantum Computation (2002-2012), University Research Chair at the University of Waterloo (2012-present), Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013) and Fr. Norm Choate C.R., Lifetime Achievement Award (2017).
Yelena Biberman, PhD
Political Science
Skidmore College and Harvard University's Davis Center
Yelena Biberman is an associate professor of political science at Skidmore College, associate at Harvard University’s Davis Center, and nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center. Her work encompasses three main areas: biotechnology and security; South Asian politics; and militarism. Her book, Gambling with Violence: State Outsourcing of War in Pakistan and India, was published by Oxford University Press in 2019. Biberman’s research has appeared in academic journals, such as Journal of Strategic Studies, Asian Security, Modern Asian Studies, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Political Science Quarterly, as well as in policy and mainstream media, such as the Military Review, Foreign Policy, Texas National Security Review, and Washington Post. Her work has been supported by numerous grants, including from the United States Institute of Peace, Fulbright Fellowship, American Institute of Pakistan Studies, and Smith Richardson Foundation. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College, Master’s from Harvard University, and Ph.D. from Brown University. She has also worked as a journalist in Moscow, Russia.
Linda Nazar, PhD
University Professor & Canada Research Chair in Solid State Energy Materials
Chemical Engineering
University of Waterloo
Linda Nazar carries out research in inorganic materials chemistry, solid state chemistry and electrochemistry. Her research is focused on the development of electrochemical energy storage devices and materials.
One of the most interesting aspects of materials chemistry is the design of structures with specific physical properties. Using guided principles, Prof. Nazar’s team synthesizes new materials, determines their structures and investigates their physical properties. She is, in particular, interested in ion and electron transport in materials as these properties are central to solid state electrochemistry and energy storage batteries.
Her group is proficient in a range of methods and fields of investigation including X-ray and neutron diffraction, electrochemistry, ac impedance and solid state inorganic and nanomaterials synthesis.
Professor Nazar holds the Canada Research Chair in Solid State Energy Materials since 2004, and was recently named a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK) in recognition of her excellence in research. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and an Officer of the Order of Canada. Further she was the Canadian representative, and Chair in the last year, of a NATO panel for the “Evaluation of Science for Peace” projects from 2007 until 2010.
Moderator
Bessma Momani, PhD
Political Science
University of Waterloo
Bessma Momani is Full Professor in the Department of Political Science and Assistant Vice-President of Research and International at the University of Waterloo. She is also a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States’ Institute in Washington, DC, and a Fulbright Scholar. She is a Governor on the board of the International Development Research Centre and an Executive member of the board of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.
She was interim Associate Vice-President, Interdisciplinary and Sponsored Research 2021-2022, Assistant Vice-President, International Relations at the University of Waterloo in 2020, Assistant Vice-President, Research and International in the Office of Research in 2021, a 2015 fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, and was a visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Mortara Center. Bessma is a Fellow of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary and sits on the Advisory Council to the Middle East Institute’s program on Economics and Energy. She also sits on the Editorial Board of the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal.
She has worked as a consultant to the International Monetary Fund, both in the communications office and the Independent Evaluation Office. She has also consulted for Global Affairs Canada (GAC) as a 2021 Visiting Scholar in its International Assistance Research and Knowledge Division by looking at economic security and digital transformations in the Middle East with a particular focus on women and youth, helping GAC devise its new Middle East strategy. From 2018- 2022 she served as member of the National Security Transparency Advisory Group at Public Safety Canada.
International Security and Research Security
Stephanie Carvin, PhD
Norman Paterson School of International Affairs
Carleton University
Stephanie Carvin is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. Her research interests are in the area of national security and international security and international law. Currently, she is teaching in the areas of critical infrastructure protection and national security.
Stephanie holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and published her thesis as Prisoners of America’s Wars: From the Early Republic to Guantanamo (Columbia/Hurst, 2010). Her most recent book is Stand on Guard: Reassessing Threats to Canada’s National Security (University of Toronto Press, 2021) which was nominated for the 2021 Donner Prize. She is the co-author of Intelligence and Policy Making: The Canadian Experience (Stanford University Press 2021) with Thomas Juneau, and Science, Law, Liberalism and the American Way of Warfare: The Quest for Humanity in Conflict (Cambridge, 2015) co-authored with Michael J. Williams. From 2012-2015, she was an analyst with the Government of Canada focusing on national security issues.
Alexander Lanoszka, PhD
Political Science
University of Waterloo
Alexander Lanoszka is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the University of Waterloo. He studies alliance politics, theories of war, and European security. He is currently working on projects related to international disinformation, nuclear strategy, and European alliance politics. His book Atomic Assurance: The Alliance Politics of Nuclear Proliferation (Cornell University Press, 2018) examines the conditions under which states that receive formal security commitments begin, and sometimes stop, seeking their own nuclear weapons. He sits on the editorial board of the journal Contemporary Security Policy and is an Honorary Fellow at City, University of London, where he previously taught prior to coming to Waterloo. He has also done work for the Office of Net Assessment, U.S. Department of Defense, and consulted for Global Affairs Canada. You may also learn more about his work at his website: www.alexlanoszka.com.
Kerry Buck, LLB
Senior Fellow
University of Ottawa
Kerry Buck was, until recently, Assistant Secretary, Economic Sector at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. Prior to that appointment, she was Canada's Ambassador to the North Atlantic Council (NATO). She held senior executive positions at Global Affairs Canada: Political Director and Assistant Deputy Minister for International Security and Political Affairs; Assistant Deputy Minister portfolios for Africa and for Latin America and the Caribbean; head of the Afghanistan Task Force; Director General for the Middle East and Maghreb, for Afghanistan and for Public Diplomacy and Federal-Provincial Affairs; Director for Human Rights. Outside of GAC, Kerry served, among other positions, in the Privy Council Office as Director of Operations for Machinery of Government Secretariat responsible for Cabinet and Ministerial mandates. Kerry holds degrees from the University of Western Ontario (BA Hons, Political Science) and McGill University (LLB, BCL).
Moderator, PhD
Veronica Kitchen
Political Science
University of Waterloo
Veronica M. Kitchen is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo and the Balsillie School of International Affairs, co-Director of the Canadian Network for Scholarship on Terrorism, Security, and Society (TSAS), and co-lead of the North America research group of the Defence & Security Foresight Group. She teaches and supervises broadly in the fields of security and global politics, often at their intersection with gender and/or popular culture. She studies critical security studies, with a focus on Canadian national security. Her recent publications include The Twitter Conference as a New Medium of Scholarly Communication (and How to Host One) (with Tanya Bandula-Irwin; PS: Political Science & Politics, 2022), Using Games and Simulations to Scaffold Experiential Learning in Global Politics (Journal of Political Science Education, 2021), Heroism and Global Politics (Routledge, 2018; edited with Jenny Mathers), and Veterans and Military Masculinity in Popular Romance Fiction (Journal of Critical Military Studies, 2018). She has also published extensively on security co-operation, mega-event security, Canadian-American security relations, and transatlantic security relations.
Lunchtime Panel Presentation
Mohammed Hashim
Executive Director
Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF)
Mohammed Hashim has worked as a labour organizer and human rights advocate for over a decade. He has dedicated his career to supporting equity, inclusion, and community empowerment. He is currently the Executive Director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Way of Greater Toronto. Mr. Hashim is also a founding advisor of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
Dual Use and Militarization
Bryn Williams-Jones, PhD
School of Public Health
Université de Montréal
Bryn Williams-Jones is a Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine in the School of Public Health (ESPUM) at the University of Montreal. Prof. Williams-Jones is interested in the socio-ethical and policy implications of health innovations in diverse contexts. His work examines the conflicts that arise in academic research and professional practice with a view to developing ethical tools to manage these conflicts when they cannot be avoided. Current projects focus on issues in professional ethics, public health ethics, research integrity and ethics education. Prof. Williams-Jones heads the Laboratory for Experimental Bioethics (LaBioethX), is Co-director of the Ethics Branch of the International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of AI and Digital Technology (OBVIA) and is Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Bioethics.
Branka Marijan, PhD
Senior Researchers
Project Ploughshares
Branka leads the research on the military and security implications of emerging technologies. Her work examines ethical concerns regarding the development of autonomous weapons systems and the impact of artificial intelligence and robotics on security provision and trends in warfare. She holds a PhD from the Balsillie School of International Affairs with a specialization in conflict and security. She has conducted research on post-conflict societies and published academic articles and reports on the impacts of conflict on civilians and diverse issues of security governance, including security sector reform.
Jason Acker, MBA PhD
Associate Vice President (Research Integrity Support)
University of Alberta
Jason Acker is the Associate Vice-President (Research Integrity Support) in the Office of the Vice President Research and Innovation at the University of Alberta. He has leadership responsibilities for building, implementing and managing a framework that supports programs and services encompassing all research integrity areas, including compliance, ethics certification, clinical trials monitoring, human and animal ethics, safeguarding research, and legal requirements related to research at the University of Alberta.
Dr. Acker is a Senior Research Scientist with the Canadian Blood Services and a Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. His research program focuses on understanding the response of cells and tissues to ex vivo storage and the development of methods for their preservation and use as therapeutic products.
David Waller, PhD
Chief Scientist, Electromagnetic Sciences
Ottawa Research Centre
Defence Research and Development Canada
Dr. David Waller is the Chief Scientist, Electromagnetic Sciences, for Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), the Department of National Defence’s R&D organization. Dr. Waller works at one of DRDC’s seven research centres, the Ottawa Research Centre, where much of the research is classified and security is always a top concern. Dr. Waller joined DRDC in 2006 and spent most of his first 12 years doing R&D in nuclear and radiological defence, with short forays into cyber warfare, and operational research. In 2018 he switched to managing science, overseeing teams of operational researchers and data scientists at DRDC’s Centre for Operational Research and Analysis (CORA). In March 2020, he found himself leading DRDC’s substantial, and entirely unexpected, effort in epidemiological modeling and analysis to support decision making in the Canadian Armed Forces and beyond. He has been in his current, chief scientist, role for one year. Before joining DRDC, Dr. Waller obtained his PhD from Carleton University in experimental particle physics, studying quarks at CERN (2003), and he was a post-doctoral researcher with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (2003-2006).
Moderator
Justin Nankivell, PhD
Office of Research
University of Waterloo
Dr. Nankivell is the current Director of Research Security at the University of Waterloo. The central objectives of this new post are to create a research security program that can navigate research security risk, risk-mitigation processes, commercialization and international efforts, and cyber security and data protection mechanisms, to protect the University of Waterloo in its key STEM areas and range of innovation institutions.
From 2008-2018, Dr. Nankivell was a professor of International law and International Security, and later Associate Dean of Academics, at the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, under the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, in the US. He specialized in East Asia security governance, international law, and foreign policy. From 2018-2022, he worked a senior executive in the Government of Canada, under Public Safety Canada, handling a range of national security files related to the Indo-Asia Pacific, to include economic security, foreign interference, and the protection of democratic institutions.
Foreign Interference in Canadian Universities
Lynnette Ong, PhD
Department of Political Science
University of Toronto
Lynette H. Ong is Professor of Political Science, jointly appointed at the department and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. She is an expert on China, having conducted on-the-ground research in the country since the late 1990s. In addition, she has also published on the broader Indo-Pacific region, including Southeast Asia and India. Her research interests lie at the intersection of authoritarianism, contentious politics, and development. She has delivered expert testimonies before the US Congress and the Canadian House of Common. She frequently offers expert commentaries to international and Canadian media. She has recently completed a decade-long study on repression and state power in China. “Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary China” (Oxford University Press, 2022), draws on ethnographic research conducted annually from 2011 to 2019, and other quantitative data sources, to theorize a counterintuitive form of state repression that minimizes backlash. Outsourcing Repression examines how the Chinese state engages nonstate actors, from violent street gangsters to nonviolent grassroots brokers, to coerce and mobilize the masses for state pursuits, while minimizing resistance. The book built on her earlier published work on “thugs-for-hire” (2015) and brokerage (2019) in China. The book has been covered in the Economist, BBC World Service, and the Wall Street Journal. She has also recently published a Cambridge Elements book in the Contentious Politics Series that argues regime change, as a big political outcome, should be analyzed through the interactions between social movements and institutional politics. “The Street and the Ballot Box: Interactions Between Social Movements and Electoral Politics” (Cambridge University Press, 2022) draws on the Malaysian Bersih, or electoral reform movement, to explain how it united the fragmented multiethnic society and contributed to a cohesive opposition alliance that brought down the long-ruling UMNO regime. She is also the author of Prosper or Perish: Credit and Fiscal Systems in Rural China (Cornell University Press, 2012). Based on research conducted in the 2000s, Prosper or Perish was among the first academic works that sounded alarm bell about mounting levels of local government debts in China, attributing it to the nature of its development model. Her academic publications have appeared in Perspectives on Politics, Journal of Comparative Politics, China Quarterly, China Journal, Journal of Contemporary Asia, among others. Her opinion pieces have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Washington Post MonkeyCage Blog, LA Times, South China Morning Post, East Asia Forum, and the Globe and Mail. She has been invited to deliver expert testimony before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission in Washington DC and Canada’s House of Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations. Her research has been featured in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Economist, CNN, BBC, among others. She received her PhD from the Australian National University. She had been awarded An Wang Postdoctoral Fellowship by Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, and have held visiting fellowship at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, and numerous prestigious universities across Asia. Her research has been funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Connaught, Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, and Association of Asian Studies. She has been appointed a faculty fellow at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. She has held the position of director of Munk School China Initiative, acting director of the Contemporary Asian Studies Program, and director of East Asia Seminar Series at the Asian Institute for many years.
Joanna Chiu
Journalist and Author
Toronto Star
Joanna Chiu is a B.C.-based journalist covering national and international news for the Star. A former correspondent in Hong Kong and Beijing, and a graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism, she is the author of "China Unbound," which examines the global political impacts of China's rise. Joanna is also an expert commentator on broadcast networks and chairs the not-for-profit NüVoices network to support women and minorities in China-related fields.
Moderator
David Welch, PhD
Professor, Political Science
University of Waterloo
David A. Welch is a University Research Chair and Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo.
His 2005 book Painful Choices: A Theory of Foreign Policy Change (Princeton University Press) is the inaugural winner of the International Studies Association International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Book Award for the best book published in 2005 or 2006, and his 1993 book Justice and the Genesis of War (Cambridge University Press) is the winner of the 1994 Edgar S. Furniss Award for an Outstanding Contribution to National Security Studies.
Welch is co-author of Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation 8th edition (ed.) (Pearson Longman, 2010); Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy had Lived (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009); The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Concise History (Oxford University Press, 2007; 2nd ed. 2011); On the Brink: Americans and Soviets Reexamine the Cuban Missile Crisis (1st ed., Hill and Wang, 1989; 2nd ed., Noonday 1990); and Cuba on the Brink: Castro, The Missile Crisis, and the Soviet Collapse (Pantheon, 1993; 2nd ed., Rowman & Littlefield, 2002).
Welch is also co-editor of Japan as a 'Normal Country'? A Nation In Search of Its Place in the World (University of Toronto Press, 2011) and Intelligence and the Cuban Missile Crisis (Frank Cass, 1998). His articles have appeared in Asian Perspective, Ethics and International Affairs, Foreign Affairs, The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Intelligence and National Security, International Security, International Journal, International Studies Quarterly, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, The Mershon International Studies Review, The Review of International Studies, and Security Studies. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1990.
Developing Adaptive Approaches to an Evolving Threat
Alex Smith, MBA
Alex Smith leads the Economic Security & Technology Program in the Intelligence Assessment Secretariat of Canada’s Privy Council Office (PCO-IAS).
Alex began his career as an RCMP officer and then joined government, post-MBA, initially serving in policy and senior advisor roles.
The last decade of Alex’s career has focused on national security, economic security, and emerging technology issues, across Public Safety, CSIS, and PCO.
Jacqueline Littlewood
Senior Strategist, Academic Outreach & Stakeholder Engagement
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Jacqueline Littlewood has been a public servant with the Government of Canada for nearly 20 years. She is currently a Senior Strategist with the Academic Outreach & Stakeholder Engagement program at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Prior to taking on this role in 2020, Jacqueline was a policy and compliance analyst. Before joining CSIS in 2014, Jacqueline was a Senior Advisor at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission where she worked for 11 years in the Non-Proliferation and Export Controls Division. Previous to joining the federal government, Jacqueline was a researcher and analyst at several think tanks in Europe and the United Nations in Geneva. Jacqueline has an MA from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University and a BA from the University of Calgary.
Supporting Research Offices
Ridha Ben-Mrad, PhD, P.Eng.
Chief Research Officer and Scientific Director
Mitacs
Ridha Ben-Mrad, a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto since 1997, joined Mitacs in 2016 and is currently Chief Research Officer and Scientific Director. Having previously held positions at the National Research Council of Canada and the Ford Research Laboratory, he is also the Chair of the Mitacs Research Council. In addition to his research on micro-actuators and sensors, MEMS, microfabrication, and smart materials-based devices, Ridha is the President and Chief Technology Officer of Sheba Microsystems Inc., a Toronto based manufacturer of Silicon based micro actuators for miniature cameras for the smart phone and automotive industries.
Sinead Tuite
Senior Director, Digital Research Infrastructure
Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada
Sinead Tuite is the Senior Director for the Digital Research Infrastructure Branch within the Science and Research Sector at Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada.
Shawn McGuirk
Deputy Director of Research Security
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
Moderator
Ian Milligan, PhD
History
University of Waterloo
Ian Milligan is Associate Vice-President, Research Oversight and Analysis in the University of Waterloo's Office of Research. In his service role, Milligan provides campus leadership for research oversight and compliance, as well as helps to coordinate data management strategies and bibliometrics.
Milligan’s primary research focus is on how historians can use web archives, as well as the impact of digital sources on historical practice more generally. He is author of three sole-authored books: The Transformation of Historical Research in the Digital Age (2022), History in the Age of Abundance (2019), and Rebel Youth (2014). Milligan also co-authored Exploring Big Historical Data (2015, with Shawn Graham and Scott Weingart) and edited the SAGE Handbook of Web History (2018, with Niels Brügger). Milligan is principal investigator of the Archives Unleashed project.
In 2016, he was awarded the Canadian Society for Digital Humanities Outstanding Early Career Award and in 2019 he received the Arts Excellence in Research award from the University of Waterloo. In 2020, recognizing his track record of research and advocacy, the Association of Canadian Archivists awarded Milligan the Honourary Archivist Award. Since 2013, Milligan has been principal investigator of over $2.3 million in grant award funding, primarily dedicated to building sustainable research infrastructure. Milligan is currently co-editor of Internet Histories and was a co-program chair of the ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries. He has an extensive interdisciplinary service record, sitting on selection committees for multiple granting agencies as well as sitting on the steering committee for the ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries. At Waterloo, Milligan has served both on the University Senate and the Board of Governors.
He lives in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada with his partner, son, and daughter.
Using Automation and OSINT to Increase Efficiency and Rigour of Research Risk Assessments
Mike Matheson, MBA
U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities
Mike Matheson is a strategic leader who is passionate about public policy and building digital solutions to real-world problems. He works for U15 Canada where he created and is now leading all aspects of Cognit.ca. Cognit.ca is a web platform that makes it easier for businesses, non-profits, governments and other users to find research capabilities on campuses across Canada. It also allows users track the latest Canadian research related to their individual interests. Prior to leading Cognit.ca Mike was U15 Canada’s Director of Data and Policy.
Before joining U15 Canada, Mike founded a start-up focused on live entertainment ticket pricing, developed business process automation applications and was a policy advisor to Canada’s Leader of the Opposition.
Mike has an MBA from Queens University and a Bachelor’s in Political Studies and International Political Economy from Trent University.
