Prof. Chad Mirkin, Northwestern University, Tobin J. Marks Lectureship in Chemical Discovery: "Exploring the 'Matterverse' Through Nanomaterial MegaLibraries and AI"
Additionally, we have implemented machine learning-driven, closed-loop experimental workflows to analyze the vast amounts of high-quality data generated by nanoparticle megalibraries, enabling the identification of novel target structures with potential applications in catalysis, energy, electronics, and beyond. This approach is accelerating the exploration of the "matterverse" and driving breakthroughs in materials design. In this presentation, we will showcase how emerging megalibrary capabilities are advancing the understanding of complex nanoscale composition-structure-function relationships and facilitating the discovery of next-generation materials.
About the Speaker
Chad A. Mirkin, Ph.D., is the director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University. He is known for his invention and development of spherical nucleic acids, a foundation of the field of structural nanomedicine; his invention and development of Dip-Pen Nanolithography and related cantilever-free nanopatterning and materials discovery methodologies; the delineation of the concept of the nanoparticle “atom” and the nucleic acid “bond” that underpins colloidal crystal engineering with DNA; and contributions to nanoparticle synthesis and supramolecular chemistry. He has authored over 900 papers and over 1,200 patents and applications worldwide (with more than 430 issued) and founded 11 companies. Mirkin has been recognized with over 250 national and international awards, including the Wilhelm Exner Medal, the Dan David Prize, the National Academy of Sciences Sackler Prize in Convergence Research, the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience, and the King Faisal Prize from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He served for eight years on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology, and he is one of very few scientists to be elected to all three U.S. National Academies. Mirkin has served on the editorial advisory boards of over 30 scholarly journals, is the founding editor of the journal Small, was a PNAS editorial board member, and was an associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. He has given over 930 invited lectures worldwide and educated over 340 graduate students and postdocs and thousands of undergraduate students. Founded in 2000 as an umbrella organization to coalesce and foster nanotechnology efforts, the International Institute for Nanotechnology represents and unites more than $2.7 billion in nanotechnology research, educational programs and supporting infrastructure.
About the Lecture
Tobin J. Marks (B.S. '66, chemistry), Northwestern University's Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, and the Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry, established the Tobin J. Marks Endowed Lectureship in Chemical Discovery at UMD in 2016. The 2017 ACS Priestley Medalist, Marks has distinguished himself as one of the most prolific chemists in the world through his innovative and interdisciplinary research in inorganic, organic and materials chemistry. The lecture is hosted by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. The inaugural lecture in 2020 featured 2019 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Stanley Whittingham.