El Agente está presente: The era of AI scientists
Speaker: Alán Aspuru-Guzik, Professor, Department of Chemistry and Department of Computer Science
Date: Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Location: In-person at 700 University Avenue, 9th floor and online
Abstract:
We stand at the inflection point of Agentic Science, where AI transitions from a passive generator to an active reasoning engine capable of autonomous discovery. The challenge of scientific research, characterized by heterogeneous tools, high-dimensional search spaces, and strict physical constraints, demands systems capable of long-horizon planning and rigorous self-correction. In this keynote, Professor Aspuru-Guzik will unveil the El Agente ecosystem, a unified cognitive architecture designed to automate the full research lifecycle.
Moving beyond standard chain-of-thought prompting, he introduces a hierarchical multi-agent framework that solves the "tool-use bottleneck" through dynamic planning and modular memory. Professor Aspuru-Guzik will discuss how we engineer agents capable of Guided Deep Research: a novel runtime retrieval mechanism that enables systems to parse complex technical documentation and synthesize code for heterogeneous simulation environments on which they were not explicitly trained. Furthermore, he addresses the grand challenge of spatial reasoning by grounding vision-language models in precise 3D Euclidean tools, bridging the gap between generative intent and physical constraints. This architecture represents a blueprint for the next generation of AI: systems that not only assist but also collaborate, reason, and discover.
Speaker Biography:
Alán Aspuru-Guzik is a Professor at the University of Toronto in Chemistry and Computer Science, Senior Director at NVIDIA Research, CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute, and Director of the Acceleration Consortium. His research integrates AI, automation, and the natural sciences, spanning functional materials, robotics, and quantum computing. He is Editor-in-Chief of Digital Discovery and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Alán began his career at Harvard (2006–2018), earning his B.Sc. from UNAM and PhD from UC Berkeley. He pioneered quantum-computing algorithms for chemical systems, advanced molecular machine learning, and now focuses on autonomous chemical laboratories to accelerate scientific discovery.
His honours include the Schmidt Science AI2050 Senior Fellowship, the Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award (2025), the Sloan Fellowship, and recognition by MIT Technology Review as a top innovator under 35. He is a fellow of the APS and the AAAS, and was named one of Canada's 100 most powerful by Maclean’s Magazine in the AI Category (2024). He co-founded Zapata AI, Kebotix, Intrepid Labs, and Axiomatic AI.
See also Alán's profile at the Discover Research Portal at the University of Toronto for current media, research, and awards.