Alán Aspuru-Guzik is a professor of
chemistry,
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...
,
chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...
and
materials science at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...
. His research group, the matter lab, studies quantum chemistry,
AI for chemical and materials discovery,
quantum computing and self-driving chemical. He is the
chief scientific officer and a co-founder of quantum computing startup
Zapata Computing and the co-founder of
Kebotix a company focused on automated chemical and material discovery.
Early life
Aspuru-Guzik was raised in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
, Mexico.
When he was in junior high, he represented Mexico at the
International Chemistry Olympiad The International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) is an annual academic competition for high school students. It is one of the International Science Olympiads. The first IChO was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1968. The event has been held every year ...
after which his passion for science, particularly chemistry, grew.
Aspuru-Guzik had obtained his
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
degree in
chemistry from the
National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1999.
In 2004, he was awarded a Ph.D. in
physical chemistry
Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistica ...
from the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
. He continued at Berkeley as a postdoctoral fellow between 2005 and 2006, working with
Martin Head-Gordon
Martin Philip Head-Gordon (''né'' Martin Philip Head) is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory working in the area of computational quantum chemistry. He is a member of ...
.
Career
From 2006 to 2010, Aspuru-Guzik was an assistant professor at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, before becoming associate professor in 2010, and professor in 2013. In 2018, Professor Aspuru-Guzik moved to the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...
as a Canada 150 Research Chair.
[
From 2012 to 2014, Aspuru-Guzik had worked with Michael Aziz and ]Roy Gordon
Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin.
In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...
with funding from the United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...
to develop grid-scale, metal-free flow batteries. In 2016, Aspuru-Guzik had worked with Ryan Babbush, a quantum engineer at Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
to develop a new algorithm for a quantum computer which will be able to detect various molecules, such as cholesterol
Cholesterol is any of a class of certain organic molecules called lipids. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a type of lipid. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells and is an essential structural component of animal cell mem ...
. Generalizing such research efforts, he has substantially contributed to developing ideas of hybrid quantum classical algorithms.
Since 2018, he has given lectures at the Information Science and Technology Center, Colorado State University, Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...
, and the College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) is a public university in Ewing Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Established in 1855 as the New Jersey State Normal School, TCNJ was the first normal school, or ...
.
Publications Record
According to Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes ...
Aspuru-Guzik has more than 60,000 citations and a H-index
The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as ...
of 107 along with a I10-index
Author-level metrics are citation metrics that measure the bibliometric impact of individual authors, researchers, academics, and scholars. Many metrics have been developed that take into account varying numbers of factors (from only considering ...
of 375. Some of his most highly cited papers are:
* Duvenaud, David K; Maclaurin, Dougal; Iparraguirre, Jorge; Bombarell, Rafael; Hirzel, Timothy; Aspuru-Guzik, Alan; Adams, Ryan P (2015). "Convolutional Networks on Graphs for Learning Molecular Fingerprints". ''Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems''. 28.
* Peruzzo, Alberto; McClean, Jarrod; Shadbolt, Peter; Yung, Man-Hong; Zhou, Xiao-Qi; Love, Peter J.; Aspuru-Guzik, Alán; O’Brien, Jeremy L. (2014-07-23). "A variational eigenvalue solver on a photonic quantum processor". ''Nature Communications''. 5 (1): 4213.
* Gómez-Bombarelli, Rafael; Wei, Jennifer N.; Duvenaud, David; Hernández-Lobato, José Miguel; Sánchez-Lengeling, Benjamín; Sheberla, Dennis; Aguilera-Iparraguirre, Jorge; Hirzel, Timothy D.; Adams, Ryan P.; Aspuru-Guzik, Alán (2018-02-28). "Automatic Chemical Design Using a Data-Driven Continuous Representation of Molecules". ''ACS Central Science''. 4 (2): 268–276.
Awards
Political Views
In 2018, Professor Aspuru-Guzik, concerned about the United States' political climate and the fallout from the 2016 United States presidential election
The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...
, decided to leave his position at Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. He described the situation as a "free-for-all" and likened it to warfare between different political parties. This discomfort led him to consider opportunities abroad in countries like Australia, Europe, and Canada. Eventually, he chose to join the University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...
, finding it particularly appealing due to its diverse population, progressive legislation related to human rights, the environment, and immigration.
References
External links
*
Research group website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aspuru-Guzik, Alán
1976 births
Living people
National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni
UC Berkeley College of Chemistry alumni
Harvard University faculty
Academic staff of the University of Toronto
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Scientists from Mexico City