Evan Walter Clark Spotte-Smith

Evan Walter Clark Spotte-Smith is an Ad Astra Fellow and incoming Assistant Professor of Digital Chemistry at University College Dublin (UCD). He holds a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from UC Berkeley and previously completed postdoctoral work at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) under Prof. Rachel Kurchin and Prof. Gabe dos Passos Gomes. His research focuses on computational methods in electrochemistry, energy storage, and the ethical implications of machine learning in chemistry. He leads the CoReACTER initiative, an anti-oppressive research group, and has held fellowships including the Carnegie Bosch Institute Fellowship (2024–present) and the Philomathia Graduate Student Fellowship (2022).

Evan’s education includes a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Columbia University (2019), with minors in Sustainable Engineering. He has conducted research at Tesla Motors, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and Columbia University. His teaching experience includes roles as an instructor for courses like 'Algorithms and Data Science for Chemical Engineers' at CMU and 'General Chemistry' at UC Berkeley.

His research emphasizes computational simulations, reaction networks, and machine learning to study electrolyte decomposition in batteries and sustainable energy technologies. He has authored over 30 peer-reviewed articles and developed software tools like SimpleDirectedHypergraphs.jl and MPcat. Notable awards include the 2025 Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Institute of Physics and the 2023 Winton-Kavli Research Pitch Competition prize.

• Funding: Lead PI on grants totaling over $5.5M, including Toyota Research Institute Synthesis (2024–2026) and National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource allocations.
• Service: Topic Editor for The Journal of Open Source Software, mentor for DisabledInSTEM, and advocate for graduate student welfare at UC Berkeley.
• Software: Contributions to pymatgen, custodian, and Emmet for materials informatics.