Pascal Friederich, tenure-track professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), has been awarded the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The prize, endowed with 20,000 euros, is regarded as the most important award for young scientists in Germany. In his interdisciplinary work, Pascal Friederich focuses on the use of artificial intelligence in material simulation, virtual material design and autonomous experimental platforms for automatic material recognition.
The AiMat (Artificial Intelligence for Materials Sciences) research group, which he leads, is primarily concerned with the data-based prediction of material properties, computer-aided material design, the use of machine learning for material simulation on an atomic scale and the direct connection of artificial intelligence methods with experiments in the laboratory.
After completing his bachelor's and master's degree in physics at KIT, Pascal Friederich developed a new method for calculating the material properties of organic semiconductors as part of his doctorate, also at KIT, which points the way to the design of new types of organic semiconductors. During research stays at the Georgia Institute of Technology/USA and as a Marie Curie Fellow at Harvard University/USA and at the University of Toronto/Canada, he worked on the development of machine learning methods for various disciplines. He is the author of numerous publications in renowned scientific journals.
