CV

Contact Information

Name Zachary W. Ulissi
Professional Title Director of AI Research & Adjunct Professor
Email zulissi@gmail.com

Professional Summary

Director of AI Research at Meta Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) and Adjunct Professor of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

Experience

  • 2026 - present

    Menlo Park, CA

    Director of AI Research
    Meta Fundamental AI Research (FAIR)
    • Lead the FAIR Chemistry team
    • AI for chemistry and catalysis
  • 2024 - present

    Pittsburgh, PA

    Adjunct Professor of Chemical Engineering
    Carnegie Mellon University
  • 2024 - 2026

    Menlo Park, CA

    Senior Research Manager
    Meta Fundamental AI Research (FAIR)
    • Co-led the FAIR Chemistry team
    • AI for chemistry and materials
  • 2023 - 2024

    Menlo Park, CA

    Research Scientist
    Meta Fundamental AI Research (FAIR)
    • Joined FAIR in 2023 to work on AI for chemistry and catalysis
  • 2022 - 2023

    Pittsburgh, PA

    Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering
    Carnegie Mellon University
    • Machine learning for computational chemistry
    • Engineering and discovery of catalysts and inorganic materials
  • 2017 - 2022

    Pittsburgh, PA

    Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering
    Carnegie Mellon University
    • Machine learning for computational chemistry
    • Engineering and discovery of catalysts and inorganic materials
  • 2015 - 2017

    Stanford, CA

    Postdoctoral Scholar
    Stanford University
    • Postdoc with Jens Nørskov in computational catalysis

Education

  • 2010 - 2015

    Cambridge, MA

    PhD
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Chemical Engineering
    • Simulations and theory to describe carbon nanotube devices and sensors
    • Systems engineering and parameter estimations for nanotube simulations
  • 2009 - 2010
    M.A.St.
    Churchill College, Cambridge, UK
    Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
    • Applied math and fluid dynamics courses
    • Research with Raymond Goldstein
  • 2005 - 2009

    Newark, DE

    B.E. / B.S.
    University of Delaware
    Chemical Engineering and Physics
    • B.E. in Chemical Engineering
    • B.S. in Physics

Awards

  • 2022
    Dean's Early Career Fellow (CMU Engineering Award)
    Carnegie Mellon University
  • 2021
    G.T. Ladd Research Award
    Carnegie Mellon University
  • 2020
    3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award (NTFA)
    3M
  • 2020
    Doctoral New Investigator
    ACS Petroleum Research Fund (PRF)
  • 2019
    Scott Institute for Energy Innovation Fellow
    CMU Scott Institute
  • 2010
    DOE CSGF Fellow
    Department of Energy
  • 2009
    NSF GRFP Fellow
    National Science Foundation

Projects

  • 2020 - present
    Open Catalyst Project

    The Open Catalyst Project builds open datasets and machine learning models to accelerate catalyst simulations.

Interests

Catalyst Modeling and Discovery: DFT, Active learning, High-throughput calculations, Electrochemical (CO2RR, HER, OER, ORR) and thermal catalysis
Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning: Large graph neural networks, Fine-tuning, Active learning, Uncertainty quantification, Heuristic optimization systems
Nanotechnology: Carbon nanotube devices and sensors, Interfacial phenomena, Classical molecular dynamics simulations
Other Interests: Cycling, cooking, traveling, outdoors, hiking