Victoria Lemieux

Wall Associate

Title

Associate Professor

Department/School

School of Library, Archival and Information Studies

Faculty

Arts

University

UBC

Geographic Location

Canada
Victoria Lemieux

Dr. Victoria Lemieux is an Associate Professor of Archival Science at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Her current research is focused on risk to the availability of trustworthy records, in particular in blockchain record keeping systems, and how these risks impact upon transparency, financial stability, public accountability and human rights. She holds a doctorate from University College London (Archival Studies, 2002), and, since 2005, has been a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). She is also the winner of the 2015 Emmett Leahy Award for outstanding contributions to the field of records management, a 2015 World Bank Big Data Innovation Award, and a 2016 Emerald Literati Award for her research on blockchain technology.

Primary Recipient Awards

Victoria Lemieux – COVID-19 Rapid Publication Working Groups – 2020

Visit project page

Governments around the world are desperate for solutions to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. From finding a vaccine, to ramping up testing, repurposing supply chains, tracing contacts and tracking compliance with quarantine orders, governments everywhere are pulling out all the stops to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the solutions being deployed rely upon novel technologies that potentially pose a threat to individuals’ privacy (DeCell, 2020). Much ink has been spilled in recent weeks discussing in equal measure the promise and the perils of these technologies in a perceived trade-off between the immediate necessity of beating the novel Coronavirus and the less immediate but also concerning loss of personal privacy.  As a result, government officials face hard policy choices, often without clear guidelines to follow or knowledge of the range of policy and technology options.

While some tracking and tracing technologies may threaten personal privacy, UBC researchers have been working together on novel blockchain-based technologies that could enable capabilities needed to fight COVID-19, such as the issuance of “immunity certificates”, while still protecting individuals’ privacy.

This rapid publication working group will bring together experts on ethical, legal, and social implications of public health technologies to 1) explore the challenges, risks, and benefits of deploying novel technologies in the response to COVID-19, 2) open a dialogue with public health officials and the public about the challenges, risks and benefits, and 3) use the exploration and dialogue to write a public policy paper (for publication) that lays out the challenges, risks and benefits and sets out a framework that can be used in public policy decision-making and technology design. The working group will adapt the Witness Seminar methodology outlined in Tansey (2006) to enable exploration and online participation and engagement. The proposed seminar will take place on May 5, 2020.

Victoria Lemieux – International Research Roundtables – 2019

Blockchain technology has emerged as a solution to the problem of trust in data and records, and trust in social, political and economic institutions, due to its profound potential as a digital trust infrastructure.  By bringing researchers and industry and community partners from diverse backgrounds together, this roundtable will help unpack relationships and interdependencies among the social, data/records and technological “layers” of blockchain technology which are, at present, not fully appreciated and understood, and help to assess the potential net benefit for humanity of this important emerging technology.  The roundtable will lead to co-­creation of new knowledge about the interdependencies and relationships among social, data/records, and technological layers of blockchain technology and, in doing so, lead to new insights about the potential and pitfalls of this technology as well as possible new insights and ideas about how to explore the impact upon humanity of other such emerging technologies.

Victoria Lemieux – Early Career Scholars – 2009

Co-Principal Investigator Awards

Shin’ichiro Matsuo – International Visiting Research Scholars – 2018
William Wong – International Visiting Research Scholars – 2012