We are delighted that Pinar Heggernes has agreed to give the welcome address at the CEDAS conference 2021. Pinar is Head of the Department of Informatics at the University of Bergen and was instrumental in establishing CEDAS. She is also a board member of the Research Council of Norway, chair of the board of NORA – Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Research Consortium, and elected to be the next prorektor of the University of Bergen.