UB launches AI and health science lecture series

Concept of AI in healthcare featuring a doctor holding out a stethoscope with "AI" on it and healthcare-related icons surrounding it.

The initiative kicks off June 10 as scholar Brian Athey will discuss how AI will affect academic health centers

Release Date: June 4, 2025

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Photo of Jinjun Xiong.

Jinjun Xiong

Yijun Sun head shot.

Yijun Sun

“This speaker series will unite innovators and thought leaders who are pioneering AI-powered advancements in health science and health care. ”
Jinjun Xiong, director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science
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BUFFALO, N.Y. – Artificial intelligence is already transforming health care.

At the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ alone, researchers are harnessing the technology to improve medical imaging, find treatments for deadly diseases and create better medical devices, among other uses.

These topics and more will be discussed during a UB lecture series that starts next week called AI and Health Science. Organized by the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (IAD), the series will bring a visiting scholar to Buffalo each month to discuss their work.

“This speaker series will unite innovators and thought leaders who are pioneering AI-powered advancements in health science and health care,” says Jinjun Xiong, IAD director and SUNY Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. “It will facilitate the exchange of ideas and knowledge, promote collaboration and give attendees a better understanding of the critical role AI will play in health science in the near and distant future.”

Xiong will moderate the series with Yijun Sun, IAD associate director of AI and health science, and a professor of bioinformatics in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

The first three lectures:

  • June 10 – Brian Athey, professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ of Michigan Medical School, will present “The dawn of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and the future of the academic health center (AHC).”
  • July 22 – Yuan Luo, professor in the Department of Preventative Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½, will present “Ethical, proactive, industrial, collaborative (EPIC) multi-modal AI for health care.”
  • Aug. 19 – Zhongming Zhao, professor in the Department of Bioinformatics and Systems Medicine at the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, will present “The road to precision health: harnessing big genomic data.”

The lectures will take place from 11 a.m. to noon in the Murphy Family Seminar Room (also known as room 5019AB) of the Clinical and Translational Research Center at 875 Ellicott St. on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

Attendees are asked to register for the events at IAD’s AI and Health Science website, where more information about the lectures and the lecture series is also available. 

Media Contact Information

Cory Nealon
Director of Media Relations
Engineering, Computer Science
Tel: 716-645-4614
cmnealon@buffalo.edu