9th Artificial Intelligence in Chemistry Symposium
Event
9th RSC-CICAG / RSC-BMCS Artificial Intelligence in Chemistry
Dates
Wednesday 2nd – Friday 4th September 2026
Place
Churchill College, Cambridge, UK
Important Links and Downloads
Please click here to register
Please click here to download the first announcement
Please click here to download the second announcement
Synopsis
Artificial intelligence is increasingly revolutionizing chemistry. We are witnessing the impact of new methods and practical applications in many diverse areas of chemistry. Following on the successes of eight annual “Artificial Intelligence in Chemistry” meetings starting in 2018, we are pleased to announce that the Chemical Information & Computer Applications Group (CICAG) and Biological & Medicinal Chemistry Sector (BMCS) of the Royal Society of Chemistry are once again organizing a conference to present the latest advances in AI and machine learning in chemistry. The meeting will be held over two and half days and will combine aspects of artificial intelligence and deep machine learning methods to applications in chemistry. The programme will include a mixture of keynote talks, panel discussions, oral presentations, flash presentations, posters and opportunities for open debate, networking and discussion.
This year’s meeting will again feature the popular “Introduction to AI in Chemistry” workshop on Day 1, including an introduction to Python and Jupyter notebooks.
Workshop on Wednesday 2nd September
One of the key pieces of feedback from the previous meetings was the desire for an introduction to AI/ML for Chemistry. For scientists new to the area the acronyms and terminology can be a significant barrier. For those who are already involved in AI/ML the whole scientific field is expanding and changing so rapidly it is becoming impossible to keep abreast of the latest developments. So, the 2026 meeting will include a half-day workshop prior to the main meeting to provide this introduction.
Who should attend
This meeting will be of interest to scientists of any level of experience from academia and industry.
Registration
Please click here to register.
Registration Fees (in-person)
RSC Member: £420.00
Non-Member: £510.00
RSC Student** Member*: £270.00
Student** Non-member: £320.00
The registration rate includes attendance at the conference, lunch meals and conference dinner.
Online attendance registration fees
RSC Member*: £270.00
Non-Member: £335.00
RSC Student ** Member*: £165.00
Student** Non-Member: £170.00
* Member is a paid-up member of the RSC
** Student rates apply to undergraduate and post-graduate students only, but not post-doctoral students.
Accommodation
Accommodation at Churchill College is available to book for Wednesday and Thursday night at a cost of £125.00 per night (including breakfast). It is advisable to book this at the time of registration as the rooms are ‘first come, first served’.
Want to become a member?
To join the RSC in order to qualify for discounted registration fees at all RSC, please follow this RSC link. Note that you can join two special interest groups for free if you become a member, so do consider also joining RSC-CICAG and/or RSC-BMCS.
Abstracts
Abstract submission is closed.
Bursaries
The RSC-BMCS and RSC-CICAG are offering a small number of bursaries to attend the meeting in person. Applications are open to PhD and post-doctoral applicants studying at academic institutions or non-profit institutions. Preference will be given to members of the RSC-BMCS and RSC-CICAG. Bursary applications are also invited from RSC or EFMC members who are of working age, but currently unemployed, and from those who may have difficulty in funding themselves or whose organisations may have difficulty in funding their attendance. The bursary value for this event is up to £700 and applicants have to fill either an RSC-BMCS or RSC-CICAG application form.
Please click here for the RSC-BMCS bursary application form.
Please click here for the RSC-CICAG bursary application form.
The application deadline is Friday 10th July 2026.
Programme
Wednesday 2nd September
| 12:00 - 13:00 | Registration and Refreshments |
|---|---|
| 13:00 - 13:30 | Pre-workshop for newcomers - Introduction of notebooks and Python Libraries |
| 13:30 - 14:30 | Workshop Part 1 Building the AI Foundation |
| 14:30 - 15:00 | Refreshment Break |
| 15:00 - 16:00 | Workshop Part 2 Powering AI with Data |
| 16:00 - 16:30 | Refreshment Break |
| 16:30 - 17:30 | Workshop Part 3 AI in Action |
| 17:30 - 18:00 | Q&A for all workshops |
| 18:00 | Close |
| 18:30 | Barbecue for all registered at Churchill College |
Thursday 3rd September
| 09:15 - 10:00 | Registration and refreshments |
|---|---|
| 10:00 | Opening Remarks |
| 10:10 - 12:00 | Session 1 |
| 10:10 - 11:00 | Keynote 1 – Jacqui Cole, University of Cambridge Data-driven Materials Chemistry |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Ben Honore, Imperial College London AutoBase: An Agentic Literature Extraction Workflow for Materials Chemistry |
| 11:30 - 12:00 | Flash Poster Presentations |
| 12:00 - 13:30 | Lunch, Exhibition, Posters (odd numbers) and Networking |
| 13:30 - 15:00 | Session 2 |
| 13:30 - 14:00 | Julia Westermayr, University of Leipzig Machine Learning for Excited States and Catalysis: From Transferable Models to Experiment |
| 14:00 - 14:30 | Guilio Volpin, Bayer Data Science-Assisted Workflows for Reaction Optimization in Process Chemistry |
| 14:30 - 15:00 | Xuan-Vu Nguyen, EPFL Beyond Just Reactions: The Strategic and Mechanistic Elements of AI-Driven Total Synthesis |
| 15:00 - 15:45 | Refreshments, Exhibition, Posters (even numbers), and Networking |
| 15:45 - 17:45 | Session 3 |
| 15:45 - 16:15 | Juliette Fenogli, Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL Exploring molecular reactivity with explainable Machine Learning |
| 16:15 - 16:45 | Jackson Burns, MIT CheMeleon: Deep Learning Foundation Models from Classical Molecular Descriptors |
| 16:45 - 17:45 | Keynote 2: TBC |
| 17:45 | Close |
| 18:30 | Walk to Conference Dinner |
| 19:00 | Reception drinks and Conference Dinner at Clare College |
Friday 4th September
| 08:30 - 09:00 | Refreshments |
|---|---|
| 09:00 - 10:30 | Session 4 |
| 09:00 - 09:30 | Lauren Delong, CRUK Scotland Institute Neurosymbolic AI for Drug Discovery: Current State, Limitations, and the Path Forward |
| 09:30 - 10:00 | Gabriele Corso, Boltz Boltz: Towards Accurate Biomolecular Modeling and Design |
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Sanaz Kazeminia, University of Oxford PRISM: Controlling Structure-Based Diffusion Models with Reinforcement Learning for Goal-Directed Molecular Generation |
| 10:30 - 11:15 | Refreshments, Exhibition, Posters (odd numbers), and Networking |
| 11:15 - 12:15 | Session 5 |
| 11:15 - 11:45 | Pat Walters, OpenADMET OpenADMET - Elevating ADMET Prediction Through Open Science |
| 11:45 - 12:15 | Kathryn Giblin, AstraZeneca From Generative AI Methods to Delivered Chemical Series: Experiences of Applying AI to Real Drug Projects |
| 12:15 - 14:00 | Lunch, Exhibition, Posters (even numbers), and Networking |
| 14:00 - 15:30 | Session 6 |
| 14:00 - 14:30 | James Kirkpatrick, Isomorphic Labs |
| 14:30 - 15:00 | Barbara Zdrazil, EMBL-EBI AI-Assisted Biocuration for Scalable and FAIR Bioactivity Data Annotation |
| 15:00 - 15:30 | Layla Hosseini-Gerami, Ignota Labs Proteome-Wide Off-Target Prediction: Lessons in Scale, Evaluation and Scientific Interpretation |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Refreshments, Exhibition, and Networking |
| 16:00 - 17:00 | Session 7 |
| 16:00 - 17:00 | Keynote 3: Teresa Head-Gordon, University of California, Berkeley Machine Learning Foundations and Large Language Models are Here for Molecular Discovery |
| 17:00 | Conference Close |
Exhibition/Sponsorship
Please click here to book your exhibition/sponsorship.
Exhibition stand package is priced at £1,400 and includes:
– A six-foot trestle table and chair(s);
– Access to electricity and Wi-fi;
– Logo inclusion in pdf delegate handbook and rolling slides;
– Exhibitors promotional page in the pdf delegate handbook;
– Logo included in the communication emails to delegates;
– One exhibitor stand staff with access to the technical sessions and Conference dinner (excluding accommodation)
Please click here to book your exhibition stand.
We are also seeking sponsorship from organisations supporting the low registration fees offered to students.
Confirmed Exhibitors
Confirmed Sponsors
Scientific Organising Committee
Chris Swain, Cambridge MedChem Consulting (Co-Chair)
Nessa Carson, AstraZeneca (Co-Chair)
Pradip Songara, Rothamsted Research (Treasurer)
Nathan Brown, Optibrium
Samantha Hughes, AstraZeneca
Garrett M. Morris, University of Oxford
Alex Ganose, Imperial College London
Secretariat Contact
Hg3 Conferences Ltd
+44 (0)1423 529333
E-mail: events@hg3.co.uk
