Heather J. Kulik is an American computational materials scientist and engineer who is the Lammot Du Pont Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1] Her research considers the computational design of new materials and the use of artificial intelligence to predict material properties.

Heather J. Kulik
Alma materCooper Union B.E. (2004)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D. (2009)
Scientific career
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
ThesisFirst-principles transition-metal catalysis : efficient and accurate approaches for studying enzymatic systems (2009)
Academic advisorsJudith Klinman, Todd Martinez
Websitehjkgrp.mit.edu

Early life and education

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Kulik earned her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at Cooper Union in 2004. She moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her graduate studies, where she joined the department of materials science and engineering and worked under the supervision of Nicola Marzari.[2] During her doctoral research, she introduced a Hubbard U term to density functional theory calculations, which improved the study of transition metal complexes.[3] Density functional theory allows for the prediction and study of new materials with limited computational cost. Amongst these materials, Kulik concentrated on transition metal complexes, as their highly localized electrons make the unphysical decollimation that occurs in the simplifications of DFT inappropriate.[3] She graduated in 2009 with her Ph.D. in materials science and engineering.

Kulik then conducted postdoctoral research with Felice Lightstone at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She then worked alongside Todd Martínez at Stanford University and Judith Klinman at University of California, Berkeley on the large-scale electronic structures of biomolecules.[4]

Research and career

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In 2013, Kulik joined the faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the Joseph R. Mares Career Development Chair.[4] She specializes in computational modeling and artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery of new materials and catalysts. In particular, Kulik develops new strategies to improve the accuracy of density functional theory.[5][6]

Awards and honors

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Selected publications

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  • Heather J Kulik; Matteo Cococcioni; Damian A Scherlis; Nicola Marzari (September 5, 2006). "Density functional theory in transition-metal chemistry: a self-consistent Hubbard U approach". Physical Review Letters. 97 (10): 103001. arXiv:cond-mat/0608285. Bibcode:2006PhRvL..97j3001K. doi:10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.97.103001. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 17025809. Wikidata Q51122974.
  • Jon Paul Janet; Heather J Kulik (May 17, 2017). "Predicting electronic structure properties of transition metal complexes with neural networks". Chemical Science. 8 (7): 5137–5152. arXiv:1702.05771. doi:10.1039/C7SC01247K. ISSN 2041-6520. PMC 6100542. PMID 30155224. Wikidata Q62741716.
  • Heather J Kulik (June 1, 2015). "Perspective: Treating electron over-delocalization with the DFT+U method". The Journal of Chemical Physics. 142 (24): 240901. doi:10.1063/1.4922693. ISSN 0021-9606. PMID 26133400. Wikidata Q85508460.
  • Jon Paul Janet; Heather J. Kulik (May 19, 2020). Machine Learning in Chemistry. doi:10.1021/ACS.INFOCUS.7E4001. ISBN 978-0-8412-9900-9. Wikidata Q106293390.

References

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  1. ^ Kulik, Heather J. (July 2, 2024). "Professor Kulik named Lammot du Pont Professor". Kulik Research Group. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Novartis Early Career Award: K. L. Hull / Leipziger Universitätsmedaille: E. Hey-Hawkins / Karl Ziegler Guest Professorship: K. Nozaki / Clara Immerwahr Award: M. Escudero-Escribano / Marion Milligan Mason Awards: V. E. Ferry, S. K. Fullerton, L. C. Hsiao, H. J. Kulik, C. S. Schindler". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 58 (10): 2940–2941. 2019. doi:10.1002/anie.201900118. ISSN 1521-3773. PMID 30680909. S2CID 195661478.
  3. ^ a b Kulik, Heather J (2009). First-principles transition-metal catalysis: efficient and accurate approaches for studying enzymatic systems (Thesis). OCLC 428134616.
  4. ^ a b "Joseph R. Mares '24 Career Development Professor in Chemical Engineering". MIT.
  5. ^ "Kulik Research Group". hjkgrp.mit.edu. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  6. ^ "Resnick | Symposium". archive.resnick.caltech.edu. Archived from the original on August 9, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  7. ^ "Heather Kulik featured as I&ECR 2017 Class of Influential Researchers – MIT Chemical Engineering". Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  8. ^ Savage, Phillip E. (September 27, 2017). "Announcing the 2017 Class of Influential Researchers". Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. 56 (38): 10515. doi:10.1021/acs.iecr.7b03758. ISSN 0888-5885.
  9. ^ a b "Heather Kulik earns DARPA Director's Fellowship – MIT Chemical Engineering". Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  10. ^ "Meet the 2019 Recipients of The Journal of Physical Chemistry and PHYS Division Lectureship Awards". ACS Axial. July 2, 2019. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  11. ^ "Heather Kulik wins the 2019 NSF CAREER Award – MIT Chemical Engineering". Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  12. ^ "AAAS Marion Milligan Mason Award Recipients | American Association for the Advancement of Science". www.aaas.org. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  13. ^ "Saville Lectures | Chemical and Biological Engineering". cbe.princeton.edu. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  14. ^ "Eight from MIT named 2021 Sloan Research Fellows". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved March 30, 2021.