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The future of materials discovery

15 - 16 March 2027 09:00 - 17:00 蘑菇视频 Free Watch online
Abstract microscope image showing a dense crystalline structure. Pale gold and cream starburst-shaped formations fill the left and lower portions, while the upper right area contains a dark field scattered with numerous iridescent rod-like crystals. Fine branching patterns and clustered crystal networks create a highly textured, mosaic-like appearance with strong contrast between light and dark regions.

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Discussion meeting organised by Professor Robert G Palgrave and Sir Richard Catlow FRS

This meeting will bring together leading researchers worldwide from materials science, chemistry, artificial intelligence and philosophy. The meeting will explore how machine learning, generative models, robotic laboratories and advanced characterisation are transforming the discovery of functional materials. Speakers will examine emerging opportunities, experimental validation, scientific understanding, and the challenges of moving from prediction to application.

Programme

The full programme, including speaker biographies and abstracts, will be available soon. Please note the programme may be subject to change.

Poster session

There will be a poster session on Monday 15 March 2027. If you would like to present a poster, , abstract (up to 200 words), author list, and the name of the proposed presenter and institution no later than Friday 19 February 2027. Acceptances may be made on a rolling basis so we recommend submitting as soon as possible in case the session becomes full. Submissions made within one month of the meeting may not be included in the programme booklet.

Attending the event

This event is intended for researchers in relevant fields.

  • Free to attend
  • Both virtual and in-person attendance is available. Advance registration is essential
  • Lunch is available on both days of the meeting for an optional £25 per day. There are plenty of places to eat nearby if you would prefer to purchase food offsite. Participants are welcome to bring their own lunch to the meeting

Please note that scientific meetings hosted by 蘑菇视频 do not necessarily represent a Royal Society position or signify an endorsement of the speakers or content presented.

Enquiries: contact the Scientific Programmes team.

Image credit: ©锔� iStock.com / AlexmarPhoto

Organisers

  • Sir Richard Catlow FRS, University College London, UK

    Sir Richard Catlow FRS

    Richard began his career at Oxford University and has directed the Davy-Faraday Laboratory at the Royal Institute in London. He has been a Professor at University College London, University of Keele, the University of Cardiff, and is a Fellow of 蘑菇视频 - the UK Academy of Science - and a member of the German National Science Academy, the Leopoldina, of the Academia Europaea and the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS); he is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Chemistry and of the Materials and Chemical Societies of India. He served as Foreign Secretary of 蘑菇视频 from 2016 – 2021 and was knighted in 2000 for his services to leadership in science and research.

    His research programme is based on the development and application of computational techniques used in direct conjunction with experiment in probing the properties of complex materials. He has played a leading role in developing the field both in the UK and internationally. His programme comprises the study of energy materials, catalysis, nano-chemistry and surface chemistry. His work has also exploited the synergy between computation and experiment using synchroton radiation and neutron scattering methods, especially in catalytic science. He has published over 1,200 research papers.
  • Robert Palgrave

    Professor Robert G Palgrave

    Robert Palgrave studied Chemistry at UCL, before postdoctoral work at Oxford and Liverpool. He rejoined UCL Chemistry in 2012 and is now Head of Inorganic and Materials Chemistry. His research is on experimental materials synthesis and characterisation, focusing on energy materials and structure property relationships. He also works on machine learning approaches to data analysis, and is director of the UK National X-ray Photoelectron Service, HarwellXPS.

Schedule

09:00-09:05 Welcome by 蘑菇视频 and lead organiser

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09:05-09:50 Dr Shijing Sun

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09:50-10:35 Professor Jacqueline Cole

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11:00-11:45 Professor Matthew Rosseinsky FRS

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11:45-12:30 Dr Alex Ganose

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13:45-14:30 Professor Maria K Y Chan

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14:30-15:15 Dr Tess Smidt

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15:45-16:15 The crystal isometry principle

Structures of crystalline materials (periodic crystals) are determined in a rigid form and hence keep all their properties under rigid motion within the same ambient environment. However, crystal structures with different rigid patterns can substantially differ鈥� in properties and hence should be reliably distinguished. Conventional representations based on reduced cells discontinuously change under almost any perturbation, which led to a new definition of a crystal structure as a class of all crystal representations that are equivalent under rigid motion

We developed a hierarchy of Lipschitz continuous invariants, from computationally fast vectors to complete isosets that distinguish all non-duplicate periodic crystals in major materials databases.

The most important conclusion is the Crystal Isometry Principle, inspired by a table of 7 cubic crystals in Richard Feynman’s first lecture on physics: under fixed ambient conditions, such as temperature and pressure, any real periodic crystal is uniquely determined by a precise enough geometry of only atomic centres without chemical types.

Hence, all periodic materials have canonical locations in a common continuous space of all periodic structures, independent of their chemistry and symmetries. This space contains all known and undiscovered crystals and is expanding as novel materials are added.

More generally, the emerging area of Geometric Data Science extends the continuous invariant-based approach to map spaces of all other real objects, such as molecules, including proteins, by complete and polynomial-time invariants like geographic coordinates on Earth.
16:30-17:15 Professor Shyue Ping Ong

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09:00-09:45 Professor Jun Jiang

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09:45-10:30 Dr Aditi S Krishnapriyan

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11:00-12:30 Professor Max Welling

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13:45-14:30 Professor Kim Jelfs

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14:30-15:15 Dr Claudio Zeni

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