Pei-Yun “Sabrina” Hsueh wins the 2025 David O’Leary award.
Sabrina is the Ethics AI and External Innovation Lead at Pfizer Inc.
She works tirelessly on building Trust in AI and significantly reducing bias.
She had further demonstrated trustworthiness and accountability to stakeholders by building Digital Trust in AI/Data capabilities and products, enabling agile AI/Data product development
To reduce bias, Sabrina as established an end-to-end bias mitigation approach, decreasing bias by 10-50% in critical use cases like vaccine delivery and rare disease detection.
There is a link to Sabrina’s resume at the end of this page.
Sabrina’s Acceptance speech
Here is Sabrina’s acceptance speech, which will give you further insights into her work and her passions .
To the esteemed members of the and IFIP IP3 committees, to the distinguished panel of judges, and to all of you who champion the responsible advancement of technology, I want to express my deepest and most sincere gratitude. Receiving the 2025 David O’Leary Award is an extraordinary honour, and I am profoundly humbled to be counted among its recipients.
This award is especially meaningful because it is intrinsically linked to the legacy of David O’Leary—a legacy built on the pillars of professionalism, ethics, and a relentless commitment to the greater good. In an era where Artificial Intelligence is reshaping our world at an unprecedented pace, these values are not just important; they are imperative. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that the solutions we architect are not only innovative but also trustworthy, equitable, and fundamentally human-centric. This award is a powerful affirmation of that shared mission.
A journey like this is never walked alone. My career has been shaped by incredible institutions and brilliant minds who have challenged, supported, and inspired me. I am grateful to my colleagues at Pfizer, where I have the privilege of leading AI Enablement and External Innovation, and to my foundational years at IBM Research, where we founded Behavioural Analytics track and was honoured to be elected as a member of the Academy of Technology. It was in these environments that I learned to bridge the gap between breakthrough research and real-world impact.
I also owe a significant debt of gratitude to the pioneers in the entrepreneurial space, including the visionary teams at a16z, who backed the health AI start-ups I was fortunate to lead. They demonstrated a profound faith in the power of agile, dedicated teams to drive transformative change in healthcare.
My passion for building bridges extends to the public-private partnerships that are so critical for progress. I am thankful for the opportunities I’ve had to serve on the Practitioners Board of ACM, in advisory roles with the UN’s AI for Good Initiatives, and on the steering committees of esteemed societies like AMIA and IMIA. These organizations are the connective tissue of our profession, and it was an honour to contribute to the founding of international working groups to establish the industrial standards that guide our work.
Innovation is a collaborative endeavour. I want to thank the many co-inventors, co-authors, and editors I have worked with on patents, articles, and textbooks. Your intellectual partnership has been invaluable.
Finally, and most importantly, I want to thank my family. Your unwavering love, patience, and encouragement are the bedrock upon which everything else is built. You are my constant source of strength and inspiration.
To conclude, I once again thank you and my nominator Stephen Ibaraki for this incredible honour. This award is not a culmination but a catalyst—a renewed call to action. It is a testament to the collective effort of so many who believe in the promise of AI to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges. Let us continue to work together, across organizations and borders, to build a future where technology serves us all, responsibly and for the good of all.
Thank you.