Rachel Kurchin

Rachel Kurchin is an Assistant Research Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering. She is a faculty affiliate of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation and a member of the Pittsburgh Quantum Institute. Kurchin leads the Accelerated Computation of Materials for Energy (ACME) group and serves as an editor of the Journal of Open Source Software.

• Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT (2019)
• M.Phil. in Materials Science and Metallurgy from Cambridge (2014, supported by Gates Cambridge Scholarship)
• B.S. in Physics (intensive) from Yale (2013)

Dr. Kurchin is a computational materials scientist whose research focuses on using electronic structure theory, data science, and energy device modeling to address climate crisis challenges. Her work spans artificial intelligence applications in materials science, materials computation and informatics, and sustainable energy production, conservation, and storage. She develops scientific codes that bridge computational methods with practical energy solutions, with particular emphasis on making computational materials science more reproducible and accessible.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong focus on computational methods for materials discovery, particularly in electrochemical systems and 2D materials. Her work integrates Bayesian statistics for uncertainty quantification, machine learning for materials discovery, and first-principles calculations for understanding material properties. A notable trend is her increasing focus on reproducibility in computational science, reflecting her active participation in initiatives to improve research standards in condensed matter physics.

• Gates Cambridge Scholarship
• Blue Waters Graduate Fellowship
• Manufacturing Futures Initiative Fellowship
• MolSSI Faculty Fellow (2024)
• Scientific Software Research Faculty Award from Simons Foundation

Dr. Kurchin advises students and researchers working at the intersection of computational methods and energy materials. She collaborates with CBI fellow Evan Spotte-Smith on electrochemical ammonia synthesis research as part of her work with the Carnegie Bosch Institute. Her research is supported by fellowships from CMU's Manufacturing Futures Initiative, the Molecular Sciences Software Institute, and the Simons Foundation. She actively participates in shaping research standards, having contributed to discussions at the International Conference on Reproducibility in Condensed Matter Physics.

Dr. Kurchin leads the ACME (Accelerated Computation of Materials for Energy) research group at CMU, which focuses on developing computational approaches to accelerate materials discovery for energy applications. The group works at the intersection of computational materials science, machine learning, and energy systems engineering, with particular emphasis on making computational research more reproducible and accessible to the broader scientific community.