James Wuest wants to learn how the properties of materials depend on the molecules they contain and on how they are organized. Once the basic rules are mastered, novel materials can be built by design from molecular components specifically synthesized for the purpose.
The ability to create on the molecular scale led Wuest to choose a career in organic chemistry. Today, he is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Montreal and is internationally recognized for studies of molecular organization, both fundamental and applied. The field is poised to use advances in artificial intelligence in many ways, such as in controlling how molecules are arranged in crystalline solids.
Many challenges lie ahead. In some fields, masses of data are acquired quickly, but in materials science information is gathered slowly. At the same time, opportunities for making new materials are unlimited. The tools of artificial intelligence needed to operate in this arena have yet to be created, and the prospects for advances resulting from collaboration are exciting.
James Wuest is the Canada Research Chair in Molecular Materials. In 2013, he was awarded the Prix Marie-Victorin, the Québec government’s highest honour in the sciences. He taught at Harvard University, where he earned his Ph.D., before accepting a position at the University of Montreal in 1981.
