February 27, 2026: Professor Ju Li: A.I and the Future of Scientific Research

On February 27th , Profess Ju Li, MIT’s School of Engineering Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering, will discuss the impact of artificial intelligence and self-driving lab on the practice of research and development, in particular, clean energy research. ["Autonomous experiments using active learning and AI," Nature Reviews Materials 8 (2023) 563­564; "A multimodal robotic platform for multi-element electrocatalyst discovery," Nature 647 (2025) 390-396] Rapid growth in modeling, experiment and reasoning capabilities, such as universal neural network interatomic potential (UNIP), large language model based hypothesis generation, robotic high-throughput experimentation, and knowledge-based Bayesian optimization (KABO) active learning algorithms, could usher in an era of “mass production of science”, but plenty of challenges and peril lie ahead. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ynexs.2025.100117

Ju Li has held faculty positions at the Ohio State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and is presently a chaired professor at MIT. He has joint appointments in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. His group (http://Li.mit.edu) investigates the mechanical, electrochemical and transport behaviors of materials as well as novel means of energy storage and conversion. Ju is a recipient of the 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the 2006 Materials Research Society Outstanding Young Investigator Award, and the TR35 award from Technological Review. He was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2014, a Fellow of the Materials Research Society in 2017 and a Fellow of AAAS in 2020. Li is the chief organizer of MIT A+B Applied Energy Symposia that aim to develop solutions to global climate change challenges with “A-Action before 2040” and “B-Beyond 2040” technologies.