World-renowned chemist Alán Aspuru-Guzik poses with Bill Lester, the first African-American professor at the College of Chemistry, and members of college leadership.
The 2024 William A. Lester Lecture featured world-renowned chemist Alán Aspuru-Guzik who shared about the future of self-driving chemistry. The lectureship was created to honor the outstanding career of William (Bill) Lester, the first African-American professor at the College of Chemistry, and to “welcome distinguished underrepresented minority scholars to present their research and engage in discourse about their experiences.”
Certainly distinguished, Alán’s aim is to “supercharge” chemistry and other fields that can aid chemistry. His work includes the realms of quantum computing, AI, automation and robotics, and self-driving laboratories. He loves pushing to be on the forefront of what’s going to happen next, and his laboratory was the recent recipient of a $200 million grant—the largest ever given to a scientist in Canada.
The lecture, which took place in late April, also serves as a symbolic full-circle moment: the lectureship’s namesake, Bill Lester, played a pivotal role in “supercharging” Alán’s career.
After completing his undergraduate degree in Mexico, Alán began to look for a topic he could adopt with a laser-focus and landed on Quantum Monte Carlo. He discovered only four professors who were conducting research in this space—one of whom was Bill Lester. Soon after that, he met Bill at the American Physical Society in 1999 and the rest, as they say, is history.
Bill remembers Alán as always being a “go-getter” and the huge impact he had on the chemistry group—including significantly modifying the code for the group’s theoretical research. Bill considered himself a “coach” for his students, but embodied that position with humility. “I may have played a role during a certain time of Alán's life, but his arrow was already pointed.”
Alán describes Bill as “super nice, super supportive, and very elegant.” He gave Alán a lot of freedom and opportunities to be a mentor within his group. This mentorship experience has served Alán well—he is now passionate about his own mentorship role within his large group.
Recalling how Bill provided tangible support during their time together, Alán shared, “He sent me to all the conferences I needed to go to, sent me to all the summer schools I needed to go to...Bill was so empowering that when I said I wanted to learn more about something only being done at Lawrence Livermore he said, ‘I’m going to take you there.’” Bill pulled up to Alán’s home with a black Porsche, wearing black gloves, and drove him to Livermore.
Together, their legacy also represents the humanization of chemistry. As Bill loves to say, “people do science.” Alán also endeavors to put “people first, science second, and money third.” Both of these men aim to be gentlemen, treat people well, and genuinely care—about the research and the researchers.
This spring’s William A. Lester Lecture brought these two gentlemen together once again in a supercharged moment that symbolized the intersection of the past, present, and future. Echoes of the early days studying with Bill converged with the latest developments in self-driving labs, while aspirations of the future frontiers of chemistry rang loud.