2020-2021 Graduate Student Fellow
Previous Faculty Advisor: Professor Paul Alivisatos
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT
During his PhD supported by the Kavli Philomathia Fellowship, Jakob’s work focused on understanding the physical chemistry of nanocrystal synthesis in lead halide nanocrystals. While it is possible to make different sizes and shapes of nano-crystals, scientists have only a rough, qualitative understanding of the chemical processes. Jakob used in-situ observations in the Alivisatos lab and high-throughput experiments in the Chan lab to generate 1000s of data points on nanocrystal synthesis. Machine learning techniques helped analyze this data. He collaborated with the Limmer and Persson groups to develop chemistry-based machine-learning models that quantified and clarified our understanding of the complex reaction networks involved in forming nanocrystals. In his current research as an Arnold O Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow, he is working at MIT in the Jensen and Buchwald groups to build similar chemistry-based models for transition metal-catalyzed reactions in organic chemistry.