Mexico City · August 26–29, 2026
Alán at fifty.
A four-day gathering of friends, students, and collaborators of Alán Aspuru-Guzik — celebrating a half-century of curiosity at the edge of quantum chemistry, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and the materials of tomorrow.
01 · The occasion
Fifty years of asking better questions.
From the early days of variational quantum eigensolvers to today's self-driving labs and agentic chemistry, Alán's career has refused the boundary between disciplines. This symposium brings together the people his work touched — and the people whose work touched his — for four days of talks, posters, mezcal, and unscripted conversation in Ciudad de México.
Computing for Chemistry
Algorithms, hardware, and the long road from VQE to fault tolerance.
Self-Driving Laboratories
Closing the loop between hypothesis, robot, and result.
AI for Science
Generative models, autonomous agents, and the new scientific method.
02 · The conference
A community, two decades in the making.
The Matter Lab International Conference 2026 will celebrate the scientific contributions of Professor Aspuru-Guzik and The Matter Lab on their 50th and 20th anniversaries, respectively, and will mark the anniversary of a globally recognized research community that originated in his early Harvard group and was reimagined at the University of Toronto. Over the past two decades, The Matter Lab has trained and connected more than 200 researchers who now lead advances across academia, industry, entrepreneurship, and government, creating a strong international network matterlab.world.
Venue & Travel
Ciudad de México.
