"Yves Moreau forcefully advocates for ethical standards in the utilization of human DNA data in research and privacy-preserving analysis of clinical genetic data in the age of artificial intelligence and big data.” 

Jury statement Einstein Foundation Award

Bioinformatician Yves Moreau is a professor of engineering science at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Moreau is at the forefront of the development of artificial intelligence (AI) applications for the analysis of DNA in disease diagnosis and medication development. He engineers algorithms for use in large-scale data analyses that guarantee the protection of privacy. Moreau champions the implementation of robust ethical standards concerning the handling of sensitive data in science. He lectures in big data ethics at KU Leuven. As a concerned scientist, he is regularly involved in public debates and is a vocal opponent of genetic surveillance technologies. He also offers his expertise to journalists, human rights activists, and other interested parties. Moreau aims to establish a strong ethical awareness among data scientists, which is essential in the age of AI, mass surveillance, and large language models such as ChatGPT. He aims to use the prize money of €200,000 for the Individual Award as a catalyst for advancing this cultural shift in the field of data science.