Alex Hernandez-Garcia
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alexhergar.bsky.social
Alex Hernandez-Garcia
@alexhergar.bsky.social
450 followers 240 following 55 posts
Assist. prof. at Université de Montreal and Mila · machine learning for science · climate change and health · open science · he/él/il #PalestinianLivesMatter 🍉

alexhernandezgarcia.github.io
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alexhergar.bsky.social
I'd like to hire one or two graduate students for the autumn 2026 term.

I'm particularly eager to find students interested in working on active learning / Bayesian optimisation with generative models for scientific discovery applications.

If that resonates with you: mila.quebec/en/prospecti...
November 19, 2025 at 8:34 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
AI4Good Lab is a seven-week program that equips women and gender-diverse individuals with the skills necessary to develop their own machine learning projects.

Applications open now!
November 11, 2025 at 11:55 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
Do you still find generative flow networks (GFlowNets) a mysterious, weird kind of method?

Check out this interactive article about GFlowNets from collaborators at Johannes Kepler University Linz!

gfn-playground.caleydoapp.org
November 10, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Alex Hernandez-Garcia
bentonlab.bsky.social
I'm looking to recruit a post-doc to help push forward our growing interests in insect ecotoxicology.
Apply here by Nov 30th!
(thanks for reposting)

career5.successfactors.eu/sfcareer/job...
Career Opportunities: Posdoctoral researcher in toxin susceptibility and evolution of resistance in insects (22517)
career5.successfactors.eu
October 16, 2025 at 12:18 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
Would you like to join Mila @mila-quebec.bsky.social as a MSc or PhD student?

Application from now until Dec 1 for Fall 2026 admission!

Mila is a vibrant institute for deep learning research and its applications.

I am looking for students interested in active learning for scientific discoveries.
mila-quebec.bsky.social Mila - Institut québécois d'IA @mila-quebec.bsky.social · Oct 15
Mila's annual supervision request process is now open to receive MSc and PhD applications for Fall 2026 admission! For more information, visit mila.quebec/en/prospecti...
October 15, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Alex Hernandez-Garcia
irisvanrooij.bsky.social
“If you share your knowledge outside the scientific community, then you’re already exerting societal influence, according to Judi Mesman. This isn’t problematic for the prestige of science: ‘Pretending to be neutral doesn’t make sense to me.’”

www.nwo.nl/en/there-is-...
‘There is no clear boundary between science and activism’ | NWO
If you share your knowledge outside the scientific community, then you’re already exerting societal influence, according to Judi Mesman. This isn’t problematic for the prestige of science: ‘Pretending to be neutral doesn’t make sense to me.’
www.nwo.nl
October 11, 2025 at 11:34 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
Very well matched couple of posts on my feed.

Links to them:
- bsky.app/profile/iris...
- bsky.app/profile/jane...
October 11, 2025 at 4:28 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
Free translation: Carbon offset are unsurprisingly useless due to capitalism

Or: The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house
October 7, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by Alex Hernandez-Garcia
katie0martin.ft.com
Please join me in congratulating Woman on her appointment
October 3, 2025 at 11:02 AM
alexhergar.bsky.social
Montreal gems
October 2, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Reposted by Alex Hernandez-Garcia
katharinehayhoe.com
My favourite Jane Goodall quotes....so many, so to the point, so wise. How different the world would be if enough people listened to her.
"People think hope is wishful thinking, and actually hope is about action." Quote from the Wiser Than Me podcast with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. "Only when our clever brain and our human heart work together in harmony can we achieve our true potential." Graphic by the Jane Goodall Institute of South Africa. "You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." Graphic by Ariana Huffington on Instagram.
October 2, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Reposted by Alex Hernandez-Garcia
abeba.bsky.social
I was part of a working group on AI and Fraternity assembled by the Vatican. We met in Rome and worked on this over two days. I am happy to share the result of that intense effort: a Declaration we presented to the Pope and other government authorities

coexistence.global
In this spirit of fraternity, hope and caution, we call upon your leadership to uphold the following principles and red lines to foster dialogue and reflection on how AI can best serve our entire human family: Human life and dignity: AI must never be developed or used in ways that threaten, diminish, or disqualify human life, dignity, or fundamental rights. Human intelligence – our capacity for wisdom, moral reasoning, and orientation toward truth and beauty – must never be devalued by artificial processing, however sophisticated. AI must be used as a tool, not an authority: AI must remain under human control. Building uncontrollable systems or over-delegating decisions is morally unacceptable and must be legally prohibited. Therefore, development of superintelligence (as mentioned above) AI technologies should not be allowed until there is broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and there is clear and broad public consent. Accountability: only humans have moral and legal agency and AI systems are and must remain legal objects, never subjects. Responsibility and liability reside with developers, vendors, companies, deployers, users, institutes, and governments. AI cannot be granted legal personhood or “rights”. Life-and-death decisions: AI systems must never be allowed to make life or death decisions, especially in military applications during armed conflict or peacetime, law enforcement, border control, healthcare or judicial decisions. Independent testing and adequate risk assessment must be required before deployment and throughout the entire lifecycle. Stewardship: Governments, corporations, and anyone else should not weaponize AI for any kind of domination, illegal wars of aggression, coercion, manipulation, social scoring, or unwarranted mass surveillance. Responsible design: AI should be designed and independently evaluated to avoid unintentional and catastrophic effects on humans and society, for example through design giving rise to deception, delusion, addiction, or loss of autonomy. No AI monopoly: the benefits of AI – economic, medical, scientific, social – should not be monopolized. No Human Devaluation: design and deployment of AI should make humans flourish in their chosen pursuits, not render humanity redundant, disenfranchised, devalued or replaceable. Ecological responsibility: our use of AI must not endanger our planet and ecosystems. Its vast demands for energy, water, and rare minerals must be managed responsibly and sustainably across the whole supply chain. No irresponsible global competition: We must avoid an irresponsible race between corporations and countries towards ever more powerful AI.
September 23, 2025 at 5:33 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
🎤 This week I’ll participate at ALL IN 2025, Canada’s largest AI event!

I’ll be in the panel: AI and Climate Change: Can AI Help Solve the Planet’s Biggest Challenges?

I hope it will be a good opportunity to discuss the impacts and opportunities of AI on Climate.

www.allinevent.ai #ALLIN2025
Banner with a photo of the speaker, Alex Hernandez-Garcia, and the dates of the event, 24 and 25 of September and the slogans: J'y serai and I'm attending.
September 22, 2025 at 8:42 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
I'm attending the Climate Mis/Disinformation Summit at @uottawa.ca. The keynote by @katharinehayhoe.com was wonderful and the various panels are super interesting!

I'll add my humble two cents this afternoon in the panel on Digital Platforms, AI and the Climate Information Environment.
Photo of the conference room hosting the Climate Mis/Disinformation Summit. Slide of the panel Governing the Climate and Information Crisis.
September 19, 2025 at 5:25 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
I'm kind of done with the review culture and system in machine learning...

- R1: good, accept!
- R2: everything is well done, but I don't like that. Bad score.
- R3: great, accept!
- R4: great, accept!

AC: One [loud] reviewer didn't like one thing, so reject.
September 18, 2025 at 7:00 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
If you are into materials discovery and happen to be looking for postdoc positions, the Institut Courtois in Montréal has an open call for applications to wonderful postdoctoral fellowships:

institut-courtois.umontreal.ca/en/postdocto...
Postdoctoral Fellowship 2025 - Institut Courtois
institut-courtois.umontreal.ca
September 9, 2025 at 10:01 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
Like every September, it's nonsense time in Montreal, as the city dismantles the summer pedestrian streets and cars start to fill them and pollute them again, replacing people and life.

I can't wrap my head around why after managing to arrange all the logistics we have to go back to car nonsense...
September 7, 2025 at 12:32 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
"It is a famine that asks ‘but what did you do?’ A famine that will and must haunt us all.

It is a predictable and a preventable famine. A famine caused by cruelty, justified by revenge, enabled by indifference and sustained by complicity."

www.unocha.org/news/un-reli...
UN Relief Chief says Gaza famine “must spur the world to urgent action”
Remarks on Gaza at the UN press briefing and Q&A by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
www.unocha.org
August 23, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Alex Hernandez-Garcia
wiringthebrain.bsky.social
How long is the world going to allow this horror to go on?
July 19, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Alex Hernandez-Garcia
aduvalinho.bsky.social
Sharing this AMAZING opportunity:

A postdoc in AI for Materials Discovery at @mila-quebec.bsky.social, with @alexhergar.bsky.social & @drolnick.bsky.social -- the group that took me in during my PhD. Exciting research topic, fantastic Professors, climate change mitigation = strongly recommended :)
alexhergar.bsky.social Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · Jun 10
📣 Postdoc call!

We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work on machine learning research for materials discovery.

All details here: assets-v2.circle.so/4htxv8ljrkzr...
July 2, 2025 at 8:32 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
📣 Postdoc call!

We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work on machine learning research for materials discovery.

All details here: assets-v2.circle.so/4htxv8ljrkzr...
June 10, 2025 at 3:26 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
This week I've participated as a mentor in the hackathon of @mutek.bsky.social AI Ecologies Lab.

A wonderful experience which gives me hope that AI can be different than the big-tech-powered hype. Here, AI was seen and used through an ecological and artistic lens.

forum.mutek.org/en/cohort-of...
Cohort of AI Ecologies Lab Projects
The lab introduces a diverse cohort of artists, technologists, and researchers from across Canada. The selection process prioritized projects that explore…
forum.mutek.org
June 7, 2025 at 1:03 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
In the recent Open Molecules 2025 (OMol25) paper, the authors boast that their work required 6 billion CPU core-hours of compute with Facebook's infrastructure.

No more details are offered, but let's do a back-of-the-envelope estimate of the energy and carbon emissions:
May 28, 2025 at 8:06 PM
alexhergar.bsky.social
Will the world really not stop the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel? Will we let thousands of children starve while tons of food ready to be delivered is halted by Israel a few kilometres away? Will the academic world stay silent and keep silencing us?

I can't sleep.
May 21, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Reposted by Alex Hernandez-Garcia
abeba.bsky.social
more of this please

www.japantimes.co.jp/business/202...
In first, Japan issues cease-and-desist order against Google
The Japan Fair Trade Commission has accused the U.S. tech giant of violating the country's anti-monopoly law by forcing manufacturers to preinstall its apps in smartphones.
www.japantimes.co.jp
April 15, 2025 at 10:15 PM