2025
Yoshua Bengio
Yoshua Bengio Awarded Queen Elizabeth Engineering Prize
2025
Yoshua Bengio Awarded Queen Elizabeth Engineering Prize
Few researchers have shaped a field — and its future direction — as decisively as Dr. Yoshua Bengio.
A Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at Université de Montréal, Bengio’s work has had a major impact in helping bring machine learning out of the realm of theory and into real-world applications. His early contributions to deep learning laid the groundwork for how computers learn from data, driving advances such as speech recognition, image analysis, language translation and pattern detection. What began in university labs now underpins tools being used in hospitals, labs, public service and businesses worldwide, accelerating research and lifting productivity across sectors.
That first wave of impact helped define modern artificial intelligence (AI). The second is centered around safety. As leading AI companies aim to make systems always more capable and autonomous, Bengio has turned his focus to a central question facing researchers and policymakers alike: how do we ensure these systems remain safe, trustworthy and aligned with human goals? He argues that society needs stronger technical and institutional guardrails to make systems more transparent, reliable, harder to misuse and easier to control.
This work is now being advanced through LawZero, a nonprofit startup Bengio launched in June 2025, focusing on developing “Scientist AI” — systems designed to prioritize truth, causal understanding and scientific reasoning over agentic capabilities. This approach aims to preserve AI’s capacity to accelerate discovery without introducing new risks.
Bengio’s career reflects the full spectrum of research excellence: discovery, application and stewardship. It also underscores a broader truth about Canadian research. When sustained investment meets academic freedom and global collaboration, Canadian scholars do more than contribute to international conversations, they help set the agenda.
Through both his groundbreaking research and now his leadership in rethinking AI safety, Dr. Yoshua Bengio’s work continues to shape how AI is developed and governed — ensuring that its benefits are shared broadly, and safely, at home and around the world.
