VLIZ climate researcher Alizée Roobaert is one of the finalists of the prestigious 2024 Chen Institute and Science Prize for AI Accelerated Research. Alizée developed an innovative AI solution to monitor oceanic climate dynamics. Her essay is published in today’s issue of Science online.
Understanding how Coastal Waters Absorb CO2
The world’s ocean absorbs about one-quarter of all human-made carbon dioxide emissions, but little is known about the role of the coastal ocean in powering the global oceanic carbon sink. Climate researcher Dr. Alizée Roobaert (VLIZ) used neural networks to fuse global satellite data and 18 million datapoints from coastal CO2 measurements, creating the first high-resolution model of CO2 absorption in coastal waters. By joining the dots between patchy datasets, her methodology offers a truly global overview of both the health and the climatological role of the world’s ocean. For the development of this innovative AI solution, Alizée was selected as one of the three laureates of the 2024 Chen Institute and Science Prize for AI Accelerated Research.
Chen Institute and Science Prize for AI Accelerated Research 2024
The inaugural Chen Institute and Science Prize for AI Accelerated Research is a major annual award celebrating innovative uses of AI to accelerate scientific discovery. The prize is awarded by the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Each applicant submitted a 1000-word essay describing their work, which were judged by an independent committee of Science editors.
The Grand Prize was awarded to Dr. Zhuoran Qiao, a Founding Scientist of the San Francisco-based startup Chai Discovery, for his work using AI in the field of molecular biology. Also honored as a finalist, apart from Alizée, was Dr. Aditya Nair, a Postdoctoral Fellow and NIH Neuro-AI Early Career Scholar at Caltech and Stanford University, whose work merges AI and neuroscience.
Presenting Alongside Powerhouse Researchers
Dr. Zhuoran Qiao, Dr. Aditya Nair, and Dr. Alizée Roobaert will present their research at the first annual Chen Institute Symposium for AI Accelerated Science, held in San Francisco on October 27-28, 2025. They will be joined by Nobel Laureates Dr. Jennifer Doudna and Dr. David Baker, plus an impressive line-up of other leading global academics, industry leaders, and researchers. The Symposium is open to the public, and registration is required.
For more information, please visit https://aias2025.org/
The 2025 Chen Institute and Science Prize for AI Accelerated Research
Early career scientists are invited to register at www.cheninstitute.com/prize to be notified when the 2025 Prize portal opens in August. Applicants should work in a field related to artificial intelligence; hold an M.D., Ph.D., or M.D./Ph.D. at the time of entry; and have received their degree in the last 10 years. Their work can span life and physical sciences.
For more information, please visit https://www.cheninstitute.org/prize
