Keynote Speakers

Morning Keynote

The morning keynote speaker is Dr. Ryan Coffee, Senior Scientist, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, who will speak on “Scientific Federated Machine Learning: Amplifying the Impact of Information” in the opening session on Thursday, June 2nd, at 9:30 AM.

Dr. Coffee’s expertise spans the fields of ultrafast and nonlinear optical methods, x-ray free-electron lasers and medical imaging and data analysis methods. He has spent the better part of the last decade co-designing machine learning methods that tightly integrate into the physical implementations of x-ray and optical detector systems with streaming data processing at the sensor edge. With projects ranging from x-ray spectroscopy in molecules, attosecond x-ray pulse reconstruction, ultrafast optical response in materials, radiographic medical imaging, and tokamak plasma fusion, he has become an adamant proponent of data and model marketplaces for cross-domain innovative sharing with built in provenance and value tracking, e.g. Federated ML. He foresees this as enabling infrastructure for an intelligent and shared data and model ecosystem with quantifiable metric based dynamic retention and access control.

Ryan is a Senior Staff Research Scientist in PULSE and LCLS with an emphasis on AMO science and instrumentation and the requisite computational methods for our imminent move to a million frames per second machine with the LCLS-II. In that context he has been a core member of the SLAC AI Initiative since its inception with particular emphasis on Machine Learning for real-time information extraction at the sensor edge. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Arkansas followed by a PhD in Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics from the University of Connecticut. He joined the PULSE Institute at SLAC as a Research Associate in 2006 and has never left SLAC since.

Noon Keynote

The noon keynote speaker is Susan E. Sons, Chief Security Analyst, Indiana University Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, who will speak on “Stakeholder Management in a Crisis: Lessons From a Crisis Communicator” during lunch on Thursday, June 2nd, at 12:15 PM.

Susan Sons serves as Chief Security Analyst at Indiana University’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research where she leads a team of engineers and analysts working to secure higher education, research, and other areas with unusual or difficult cybersecurity challenges. In her roles as Manager of Security Services with OmniSOC and Deputy Director of ResearchSOC, Susan leads monitoring, intelligence, defense, and incident response operations for large and small academic institutions, and NSF Major Facilities.

Susan is passionate about getting beyond the checkboxes to build truly effective security for real-world needs. She’s a busy generalist with specialties in IoT/OT/ICS/SCADA, security operations, software security, and more. When not building security teams, services, and programs, Susan enjoys time with family, good tea, and outdoor adventures.