Automating Chemical Laboratories

2024-2026

Major advances in automated instrumentation and artificial intelligence (AI) are creating enhanced opportunities for innovation in basic research. Integrating automation and AI into chemical and biological laboratories could have profound impacts by broadening access within the chemical enterprise, optimizing results, improving safety and reproducibility of experiments, enabling people from across the world to conduct experiments they could not do at their own institutions, and increasing the time scientists dedicate to analyzing and understanding research outputs while reducing time spent on rote tasks. When deployed at scale, automation could lower many barriers in the field of synthetic chemistry. With full tele-synthesis and analysis available, ideas for novel synthetic targets could be taken from conceptualization to execution rapidly and efficiently.

This Scialog series will bring together about 50 early career scientists from distinct fields including all areas of synthetic chemistry (organic, inorganic, materials and biological), integrated and automated instrument development, engineering, materials science, computer and data science, and AI computer research. The goal is to create a dynamic, interdisciplinary community that will accelerate progress in the chemical sciences and laboratory automation through collaborative projects marrying advances in automation and AI to key questions in fundamental research. The group is also expected to have additional discussions on how the chemistry curriculum and workforce development must adapt to the changes in how basic chemistry research is conducted.

Fellows & Facilitators

About 50 early career faculty will be invited as Fellows, ranging from their first year on faculty to recently post-tenure. Around 10 senior scientists will act as Facilitators to outline major questions, guide discussions, and assess proposals.

AUT Fellows

Milad Abolhasani
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
North Carolina State University
Jason Adams
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Rice University
Amirali Aghazadeh
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Mahshid Ahmadi
Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Halleh Balch
Oceans and Electrical Engineering
Stanford University
Laura Ackerman-Biegasiewicz
Chemistry
Emory University
Herdeline Ann Ardoña
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
University of California, Irvine
Zakaria Al Balushi
Materials Science and Engineering
University of California, Berkeley
Oceane Bel
Physical & Computational Sciences Directorate
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Connor Bischak
Chemistry
University of Utah
Cailin Buchanan
Materials Science Division
Argonne National Laboratory
Justin Bui
NYU Tandon – Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
New York University
Pieremanuele Canepa
Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Houston
Gaurav Chopra
Chemistry / Computer Science
Purdue University
Connor Coley
Chemical Engineering & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stacy Copp
Materials Science and Engineering
University of California, Irvine
Luis De Jesús Báez
Chemistry
University at Buffalo SUNY
Emily Davidson
Chemical Engineering
Princeton University
Sijia Dong
Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Northeastern University
Yu Gan
Biomedical Engineering
Stevens Institute of Technology
Victor García-López
Chemistry,
Louisiana State University
Gabe Gomes
Chemistry / Chemical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
James Grinias
Chemistry & Biochemistry
Rowan University
Mengyang Gu
Statistics and Applied Probability
University of California, Santa Barbara
Shuo Han
Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Illinois Chicago
Mark Hendricks
Chemistry
Whitman College
Olexandr Isayev
Chemistry
Carnegie Mellon University
Nicholas Jackson
Chemistry
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Vida Jamali
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Metin Karayilan
Chemistry
Case Western Reserve University
Haegyum Kim
Materials Sciences Division
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Aditi Krishnapriyan
Chemical Engineering / Computer Science
University of California, Berkeley
Sebastian Kube
Materials Science and Engineering
University of Wisconsin – Madison
Sten Lambeets
Physical & Computational Sciences Directorate
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
David Leitch
Chemistry
University of Victoria
Zhou Lin
Chemistry
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Mingjie Liu
Chemistry
University of Florida
Fang Liu
Chemistry
Emory University
Chong Liu
Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of California, Los Angeles
Long Luo
Chemistry
University of Utah
Jeffrey Lopez
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Northwestern University
Marilyn Mackiewicz
Chemistry
Oregon State University
Arun Kumar Mannodi Kanakkithodi
Materials Engineering
Purdue University
Michael McGuirk
Chemistry
Colorado School of Mines
Arun Moorthy
Forensic Science
Trent University
Melody Morris
Polymer Science & Engineering
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Badri Narayanan
Mechanical Engineering
University of Louisville
Glen O’Neil
Chemistry & Biochemistry
Montclair State University
Andrea Pickel
Mechanical Engineering
University of Rochester
Jin Qian
Chemical Sciences Division
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Jolene Reid
Chemistry
University of British Columbia
Trevor David Rhone
Physics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Nicholas Riley
Chemistry
University of Washington
Grant Rotskoff
Chemistry
Stanford University
Jessica Sampson
Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Delaware
Christopher Sandford
Chemistry
Dartmouth College
Carly Schissel
Chemistry
Pennsylvania State University
Daniel Schwalbe-Koda
Materials Science and Engineering
University of California, Los Angeles
Johanna Schwartz
Materials Science Division / Physical Life Sciences
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Martin Seifrid
Materials Science and Engineering
North Carolina State University
Amir Sheikhi
Chemical Engineering
Pennsylvania State University
Cory Simon
Chemical Engineering, Oregon State University
Nairiti Sinha
Materials Science and Engineering
Pennsylvania State University
Siddharth Srivastava
Computing and Augmented Intelligence
Arizona State University
Shijing Sun
Mechanical Engineering
University of Washington
Nathan Szymanski
Materials Science and Engineering
University of California, Los Angeles
Daniel Tabor
Chemistry
Texas A&M University
Rebecca Taylor
Mechanical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Helen Tran
Chemistry
University of Toronto
Allison Walker
Chemistry
Vanderbilt University
Yinan Wang
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Jie Xu
Nanoscience and Technology Division
Argonne National Laboratory
Andrew Zahrt
Chemistry
University of Pennsylvania
Yan Zeng
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Florida State University
Zach Zheng
Chemistry
Washington University in St. Louis
Qilei Zhu
Chemistry
University of Utah

AUT Facilitators

Rajeev Surendran Assary
Argonne National Laboratory
Lane Baker
Texas A&M University
Malika Jeffries-EL
Boston University
Klavs Jensen
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Anne M. LaPointe
Cornell University
Philip Leduc
Carnegie Mellon University
Karl Mueller
Ames National Laboratory
Nikki Pohl
Indiana University Bloomington
Sarah Reisman
California Institute of Technology
Christopher Welch
ICASE – Indiana Consortium for Analytical Sciences & Engineering

Team Awards

Goal: to accelerate innovation and broaden access within the chemical enterprise through advances in automated instrumentation and artificial intelligence.

2024 Team Awards

Calibration-Free Quantitation of Reaction Yields in High-Throughput Reaction Screening through Absolute Carbon Quantification by LC-FID

James Grinias
Chemistry & Biochemistry
Rowan University
Connor Coley
Chemical Engineering & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jessica Sampson
Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Delaware

Getting on the Grid: Parallel Nano-Crystallography for Large-Scale Data Generation

Michael McGuirk
Chemistry
Colorado School of Mines
Andrea Pickel
Mechanical Engineering
University of Rochester

Automated Workflows to Assess Physical Constraints in Neural Networks for Molecular Property Prediction

Grant Rotskoff
Chemistry
Stanford University
Aditi Krishnapriyan
Chemical Engineering / Computer Science
University of California, Berkeley
Andrew Zahrt
Chemistry
University of Pennsylvania

Reducing the Cost of Device Development with Closed-Loop Proxy Measurements and Supplemental Characterization

Martin Seifrid
Materials Science and Engineering
North Carolina State University
Cory Simon
Chemical Engineering
Oregon State University
Connor Bischak
Chemistry
University of Utah

Closed-Loop Hypothesis Generation for Automated Chemical Synthesis

Jolene Reid
Chemistry
University of British Columbia
Yu Gan
Biomedical Engineering
Stevens Institute of Technology

Structure Identification in Complex Chemical Mixtures Using Boltzmann Spectroscopy

Daniel Schwalbe-Koda
Materials Science and Engineering
University of California, Los Angeles
Gabe Gomes
Chemistry / Chemical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Jeffrey Lopez
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Northwestern University

A Data-Driven Approach for Derisking Chemical Synthesis

Laura Ackerman-Biegasiewicz
Chemistry
Emory University
Gabe Gomes
Chemistry / Chemical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University

2025 Team Awards

Achieving the Theoretical Limits of Information Gains in Automated Experimentation under Hardware Restrictions

Daniel Schwalbe-Koda
Materials Science and Engineering
University of California, Los Angeles
Shijing Sun
Mechanical Engineering
University of Washington

Autonomous Discovery of Single-phase High-Entropy Transition Metal Chalcogenides

Zakaria Al Balushi
Materials Science and Engineering
University of California, Berkeley
Pieremanuele Canepa
Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Houston
Shijing Sun
Mechanical Engineering
University of Washington

CrysSolv: A Predictive Program for Solvent-Mediated Molecular Crystallization

Michael McGuirk
Chemistry
Colorado School of Mines
Andrew Zahrt
Chemistry
University of Pennsylvania

Temporally Adaptive Design of Organic Flow Battery Systems

Cailin Buchanan
Materials Science Division
Argonne National Laboratory
Daniel Tabor
Chemistry
Texas A&M University

An Open-Source Modular Automated Laboratory System for Real-Time Monitoring of Continuous Electrosynthesis

James Grinias
Chemistry & Biochemistry
Rowan University
Long Luo
Chemistry
University of Utah
Glen O’Neil
Chemistry & Biochemistry
Montclair State University

Automated Design of Next-Generation Anion Exchange Membranes for Fuel Cells and Beyond

Cailin Buchanan
Materials Science Division
Argonne National Laboratory
Badri Narayanan
Mechanical Engineering
University of Louisville
Johanna Schwartz
Materials Science Division / Physical Life Sciences
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

CRISIS: Comprehensive Reproducibility Initiative for Scientific Integrity and Standardization

Mark Hendricks
Chemistry
Whitman College
Jessica Sampson
Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Delaware
Martin Seifrid
Materials Science and Engineering
North Carolina State University