Scholars Gather for Computational Molecular Science & Machine Learning Symposium

From June 29 to July 1, NYU Shanghai hosted the 2024 International Symposium on Computational Molecular Science & Machine Learning, bringing together approximately 180 scholars, students, and industry professionals from around the globe. The event focused on recent advancements in computational molecular science and the application of machine learning methods in related fields.

A distinguished scientific committee, comprised of esteemed faculty from NYU and NYU Shanghai, including William Glover, Sun Xiang, Mark Tuckerman, and John Zhang, as well as Tong Zhu from East China Normal University, oversaw the symposium.

_{NYU Shanghai Chancellor Tong Shijun}

NYU Shanghai Chancellor Tong Shijun welcomed the participants in his opening remarks. He highlighted NYU Shanghai’s aspiration of being “a world-class research university that integrates different cultures and offers majors in the arts and sciences,” and expressed his hope for more world-class international conferences and scientific achievements at the university. “The symposium aims to provide an advanced platform for exchange and collaboration among international and domestic scholars. The gathering of an outstanding group of scholars with expertise in related fields will help cultivate novel research ideas and develop new methodologies for the most challenging problems in these topics,” said John Zhang, Director of the NYU-ECNU Center for Computational Chemistry at NYU Shanghai and member of the symposium’s scientific committee.

_{Director of the NYU-ECNU Center for Computational Chemistry at NYU Shanghai John Zhang}

The symposium attracted 33 prominent international speakers from leading universities, research institutes, and corporations, such as Peking University, Fudan University, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, University of California, San Diego, University of California, Davis, Nanyang Technological University, New York University, NYU Shanghai, and Microsoft. Over the three days, presentations were organized into nine sessions, covering topics such as electronic structure theory, chemical dynamics, biological systems, materials science, and the development of machine learning methods in these areas.

_{Professor Zhang Donghui from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences}

“This type of symposium offers unique opportunities for cross-fertilization and exchange of ideas across different disciplines, which can have a long-term impact on charting new avenues of scientific inquiry and innovation, as I expect will be the case with our symposium,” said Mark Tuckerman, NYU Professor of Chemistry and Mathematics and member of the scientific committee. “The cultural diversity of NYU Shanghai, set against the backdrop of one of the world’s most exciting and vibrant cities, makes this an ideal venue for such an interdisciplinary meeting to take place, and I look forward to the reestablishment of our annual tradition of organizing such inspiring and intellectually stimulating events.”

_{NYU Professor of Chemistry and Mathematics Mark Tuckerman}

The symposium also featured a poster session showcasing the research work of around 40 participants. After careful evaluation, Jonathan D. Schultz from Duke University, Xia Junfan from the University of Science and Technology of China, Liu Zengkui, and Raj Roy from NYU Shanghai were awarded the best poster awards.

This year’s symposium is sponsored by the NYU-ECNU Center for Computational Chemistry at NYU Shanghai and the Shanghai Frontiers Science Center of Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning at NYU Shanghai.