Jed Pitera

Dr. Pitera is currently the strategy co-lead for accelerated discovery in sustainable materials. The mission of this team is to use all the tools of AI, machine learning. HPC, and quantum computing to speed the discovery of advanced materials in application areas including semiconductors, energy storage, carbon capture, and replacement of PFAS "forever chemicals". The team works on both materials for sustainability applications as well as improving the sustainability of existing materials in use, in connection with internal, commercial, and government partners.

Previously, he completed an operations rotation as the Technical Assistant to Dr. Jeff Welser, VP IBM Research – Almaden, Australia, China, Japan. In this role, he helped with operations, strategy, recruiting, technical vitality, and business processes for a research site with ~700 inhabitants across a variety of technical disciplines.

Dr. Pitera received undergraduate training in Biology and Chemistry at Caltech and a Ph.D. in Biophysics at the UCSF in the laboratory of Prof. Peter Kollman. His postdoctoral work was in computational physical chemistry with Prof. Dr. Wilfred van Gunsteren at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland.

In 2001, he joined IBM Research and has been a research staff member at IBM for over two decades, applying computational tools and machine learning to challenging materials R&D problems. He has published 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, has an h-index of 35, and is a co-inventor on 9 granted US patents. Dr. Pitera is also an adjunct assistant professor in the UCSF Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry.