The UChicago and Caltech AI+Science Conference 2026
The University of Chicago and the California Institute of Technology are centers of gravity for the study, application, and use of AI and Machine Learning to enable scientific discovery across the physical and biological sciences, advancing core AI principles and training a new generation of interdisciplinary scientists. To both advance this scientific and technical pursuit and demonstrate the leadership of UChicago and Caltech in this space, we will host The University of Chicago and Caltech Conference on AI+Science, Sponsored by the Margot and Tom Pritzker Science Foundation, in Chicago from October 19–21, 2026. This event will bring together an elite and diverse cohort of leading researchers in core AI and domain sciences to lead conversations and drive partnerships that will shape future inquiry, industry investment, foundation projects, and entrepreneurial opportunities.
The event will take place at the David Rubenstein Forum at the University of Chicago.
Register by August 28, 2026.
More logistical information coming soon!
Google sign in is required to register.
- Schedule
- Monday, October 19, 2026
9:00 AM – Breakfast/Registration
9:30 AM – Opening Remarks (Becca Willett)
10:00 AM – Seppe Kuehn
10:30 AM – Break
11:00 AM – Andrew White
11:30 AM – C. Yao Lai
12:00 PM – Lunch
1:00 PM – Darío Gil (Under Secretary for Science, U.S. Department of Energy)
1:30 PM – Eric Vanden-Eijnden
2:00 PM – Vicky Kalogera
2:30 PM – Break & Poster Session
4:00 PM – Prize Winner 1
4:30 PM – Prize Winner 2
5:30 PM – Reception and Dinner (Obama Presidential Center)
- Tuesday, October 20, 2026
8:30 AM – Breakfast
9:00 AM – Marlene Cohen
9:30 AM – James DiCarlo
10:00 AM – Tatiana Engel
10:30 AM – Break
11:00 AM – Katie Bouman
11:30 AM – Chihway Chang
12:00 PM – Lunch
1:30 PM – Michele Ceriotti
2:00 PM – David Miller
2:30 PM– Break
3:00 PM – Jonathan Weare
3:30 PM – Petros Koumoutsakos
4:00 PM – Poster Session & Reception
- Wednesday, October 21, 2026
9:00 AM – Breakfast
9:30 AM – Yisong Yue
10:00 AM – Grant Rotskoff
10:30 AM – Break
11:00 AM – Carla Gomes
11:30 AM – Nicholas T. Ouellette
12:00 PM – Lunch
- Monday, October 19, 2026
Speakers
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Katie Bouman
Assistant Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Electrical Engineering and Astronomy at Caltech; Rosenberg Scholar; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute -
Michele Ceriotti
Full Professor, Laboratory of Computational Science and Modelling at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; Director, Institute of Materials -
Chihway Chang
Associate Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UChicago; Co-Lead of the Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics' Survey Science Group -
Marlene R. Cohen
Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and the Neuroscience Institute at UChicago -
James DiCarlo
Investigator, McGovern Institute; Peter de Florez Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT; Director, MIT Quest for Intelligence -
Tatiana Engel
Associate Professor in Princeton Neuroscience Institute -
Dario Gil
Under Secretary for Science, U.S. Department of Energy -
Carla Gomes
Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science, Department of Information Science, and the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University; Director, Institute of Computational Sustainability; Schmidt AI2050 Senior Fellow, Schmidt Sciences -
Vicky Kalogera
Daniel I. Linzer Distinguished University Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University; Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), Northwestern University; Director, NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky (SkAI) -
Petros Koumoutsakos
Herbert S. Winokur, Jr. Professor of Computing in Science and Engineering; Area Chair, Applied Mathematics at Harvard University -
Seppe Kuehn
Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolution at UChicago -
Ching-Yao Lai
Assistant Professor in the Department of Geophysics at Stanford University; Affiliated Faculty of the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering -
David Miller
Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College; Faculty Co-Director, AI + Science at UChicago -
Nicholas Ouellette
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University -
Grant Rotskoff
Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University -
Eric Vanden-Eijnden
Professor of Mathematics in the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU -
Jonathan Weare
Pritzker AI+Science Visiting Scholar; Professor of Mathematics in the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU -
Andrew White
Head of Science, Co-Founder, FutureHouse -
Yisong Yue
Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Caltech