Brian Anthony

Regina Barzilay, born in 1970 in Chișinău, Moldova, is a distinguished Israeli-American computer scientist who serves as the School of Engineering Distinguished Professor for AI and Health at MIT. As the AI faculty lead at MIT's Jameel Clinic, she has revolutionized the intersection of artificial intelligence and healthcare. After emigrating to Israel at age 20, she completed her education at Ben-Gurion University before earning her PhD from Columbia University. Her groundbreaking work spans natural language processing, deep learning applications in chemistry, and oncology. A personal battle with breast cancer in 2014 inspired her to focus on medical AI research, leading to innovations like the Mirai AI model for breast cancer detection and the Sybil system for predicting lung cancer risk. Her achievements include developing Halicin, a powerful new antibiotic compound discovered through machine learning. Barzilay's exceptional contributions have earned her numerous prestigious accolades, including the 2017 MacArthur "Genius Grant," the 2020 AAAI Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity, and election to both the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering. Her work continues to push boundaries in AI applications for drug discovery and medical diagnostics, making her one of the most influential figures in the field of artificial intelligence and its practical applications in healthcare.