The Future of Autonomous Science

This talk will discuss the present and future of AI/ML accelerated material discovery, with particular focus on use of synchrotron methods for soft materials. Autonomous experimentation (AE) based on Bayesian optimization was used to automate x-ray scattering experiments. Several examples of successful autonomous experiments in polymer science will be presented, including the use of AE to explore the non-equilibrium self-assembly of block copolymer thin films into non-native morphologies. Finally, we will discuss the intersection of large language models (LLMs) with material discovery; including a domain-specific chatbot, and a vision for future agentic AI workflows for science.