Princeton University will be one of five higher education partners in a new National Science Foundation Artificial Intelligence Materials Institute (AI-MI), a federally backed center announced to open this fall at Cornell University. The announcement says the institute will accelerate discovery of next-generation materials important for energy, sustainability and quantum technologies. The total institute funding amount is not stated in the announcement. Partners named in the coalition include Cornell, Princeton, the City College of the City University of New York, Boston University and the technology company Intel.
The institute will emphasize targeted design of new materials by combining domain expertise with data-driven methods. Plans include the Artificial Intelligence Materials Science Ecosystem (AIMS-EC), described as an open, cloud-based portal that couples a science-ready large language model with targeted data streams, including experimental measurements, simulations, images and scientific papers. The institute will also include an educational component to prepare students at multiple levels for careers at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and the physical sciences.
Princeton faculty participation was highlighted by Professor of Chemistry Leslie Schoop, who will serve in the institute´s executive management as a co-principal investigator and as an expert in quantum chemistry and topological materials. Schoop, who helped write the proposal, said she was encouraged that materials experts are part of the team. Cornell provost Kavita Bala and Brian Stone, who is performing the duties of the National Science Foundation director, are quoted in the institute announcement emphasizing the momentous integration of Artificial Intelligence and materials research and the role of the effort in strengthening the workforce and U.S. competitiveness. The announcement notes that NSF has funded National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes since 2020 and that AI-MI is one of five new NSF institutes established in 2025; the aggregate 2025 investment amount is not stated. Another Princeton scholar mentioned as involved with NSF institute activity is Jason Lee, a visiting research scholar in electrical and chemical engineering who participates in the AI Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning.
