Boston and New YorkBoston and NY

Open Science, AI, and Future of Scientific Publishing

Science is changing — more and more data is publicly available, and AI tools are making it easier than ever to parse. Join Swissnex and Frontiers to explore how scientific publishing is adapting to the changing research landscape.

Academic researchers are rapidly moving from publishing only articles to a broader package of scholarly outputs, including datasets, code, protocols, and workflows. A new system of open data is emerging that is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR), holding the promise of accelerated scientific discovery. At the same time, open science presents opportunities for AI parsing and integration in the discovery and publishing processes. Researchers are navigating a new decentralized landscape of voluminous data, spread across repositories and platforms, with the promise of AI-driven science as a new scientific partner to navigate the overflow of information.

How should scientists, universities, libraries, and academic publishers navigate these new research ecosystems? Are there promising ways to integrate the diverse functions of publishers, data and code repositories, and preservation platforms? And what role will AI play in these processes? Join Swissnex and Frontiers for a discussion on the future of scientific publishing, including a demonstration of how one publisher is pushing the integration of data generation, compliance, peer review, and dissemination. Speakers from Harvard, Boston University, Suffolk University, and Frontiers will cover journal editing, research data management, research administration, science journalism, and AI-ready data.

Program

  • 5:30pm – Doors open
  • 6:00pm – Opening remarks
  • 6:10pm – Keynote
  • 6:30pm – Panel discussion
  • 7:05pm – Q&A
  • 7:15pm – Reception
  • 8:00pm – End
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Event start time

  • Boston

    5:30PM

Welcome Remarks

  •

    Bio

    Christopher Erdmann

    Head of Open Science and
    External Affairs, USA
    Frontiers

    Christopher Erdmann is an advocate and practitioner in Open Science and FAIR, with two decades of experience building data stewardship programs across scientific, government, and cultural heritage institutions. He is currently Head of Open Science and External Affairs, US at Frontiers. Prior to joining Frontiers, he was Head of Open Science at SciLifeLab, and before that the Associate Director for Open Science at the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Earlier, he was the Assistant Director for Data Leadership at the American Geophysical Union, where he was responsible for data stewardship and drove programs on open science and FAIR.

    His career spans research publishing (Frontiers), biomedical philanthropy (Michael J. Fox Foundation), life sciences infrastructure (SciLifeLab), scholarly societies (American Geophysical Union), and research computing and libraries (Renaissance Computing Institute at UNC, California Digital Library/The Carpentries, North Carolina State University, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, European Southern Observatory), as well as the Supreme Court of the US, the United Nations, the University of Washington, the Smithsonian, and CNET. At Harvard, he led the Wolbach Library at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and helped launch research data management services across the university.

    Christopher holds an MLIS from the University of Washington iSchool and a BA from the University of California, Davis.

Keynote

  •

    Bio

    Azer Bestavros

    Inaugural Associate Provost for
    Computing & Data Sciences
    Boston University

    Prof. Azer Bestravos is the Inaugural Associate Provost for Computing & Data Sciences at Boston University and the Warren Distinguished professor of Computer Science. He developed and launched the new Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences in 2019, which works to broaden BU’s footprint in computational and data-driven research as well as introduce new educational pathways for all students to gain computing, data science, and AI skills. He was previously the Founding Director of the Hariri Institute for Computing, set up in 2010 to nucleate BU’s presence in computing and data sciences.

    Professor Bestavros specializes in distributed systems and trustworthy computing,  with seminal contributions to the technologies behind content distribution and delivery on the Internet, cloud computing resource management, safety-critical software systems, and privacy-preserving big data analytics. His work has been funded by over $40M from government and industry sponsors, and has generated his 20 PhD theses, 8 patents, 2 startups, and hundreds of refereed papers with over 24,000 citations.

Speakers

  •

    Bio

    Sean Hill

    Co-Founder & CEO
    Senscience

    Sean Hill is a founder, CEO, and pioneer in AI-driven brain modeling, open-data infrastructure, and mental health innovation, with nearly two decades advancing neuroscience through data and technology. He serves as Co-Founder & CEO of Senscience, driving AI-powered transformation of science through open, connected research data. He is also Chief Scientific Officer of Kelello, an AI-powered mental health platform improving patient experience and measurement-based care. He holds appointments as Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto (Psychiatry & Physiology) and as Titular Professor at EPFL in Switzerland. 

    As the inaugural Scientific Director of the Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics at CAMH, he advanced data-driven clinical innovation by launching the BrainHealth Databank and leading a pan-Canadian youth mental health data federation. He also co-directed the Blue Brain Project at EPFL through 2024, pioneering large-scale neural circuit simulations and neuroinformatics infrastructure. Author of 100+ peer-reviewed publications, holder of multiple patents, and a frequent global speaker, he continues to bridge discovery and care through AI-driven collaboration spanning academia, startups, industry, and clinical innovation.

  •

    Bio

    Jessica Pierce

    Research Data Manager
    Harvard Medical School

    Jessica leads the Research Data Management Team within Research Computing at Harvard Medical School Information Technology (HMS IT), and co-chairs the Longwood Medical Area Research Data Management Working Group. She collaborates with other HMS IT groups to expand HMS storage offerings, develop processes and tools, and identify and move data between storage environments. 

    Jessica’s position as Research Data Manager is a fusion of her varied career background and interests in science, data management, library science, and information technology. She earned her B.S. in Geology and worked as a Project Geologist for an environmental consulting company for six years, summarizing data analysis results and reports of findings. She then earned a Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree and was introduced to the emerging world of research data management. She worked as the Chief Librarian for a Boston start-up organization and coordinated the curation of an in-house digital library that was accessible to communities in developing countries. 

  •

    Bio

    Quinten Steenhuis

    Senior Practitioner in Residence
    Suffolk University Law School

    Quinten Steenhuis is a practitioner in residence and adjunct professor at Suffolk University Law School‘s Legal Innovation and Technology Lab. He spent 12 years as a housing attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services. His work focuses on closing the access to justice gap with technology, especially interactive tools that help people who cannot afford an attorney. Quinten’s signature projects include MADE, the Massachusetts Defense for Eviction tool, and Court Forms Online, an international response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Quinten Steenhuis was named a “Legal Rebel” by the ABA Journal. His work automating legal help has been highlighted in national media, including the New York Times and Boston Globe, and in 2022 he was recognized in a joint press release by the White House and the Department of Justice.

Partners

This event is presented in collaboration with Frontiers, one of the world’s largest and most impactful research publishers, dedicated to making peer-reviewed, quality-certified science openly accessible.