18 Scientists from the US and Canada Win Scialog Awards for Advancing Chemical Lab Automation

Seven university teams from across the United States and Canada have been recognized for their collaborative projects that combine advances in automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to address key questions in fundamental research. These projects were recently funded by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, and the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation. The announcement marks the second year of the Scialog: Automating Chemical Laboratories initiative, which brings together 50 early-career scientists from diverse disciplines to foster a collaborative community aimed at accelerating progress in chemical sciences and laboratory automation.

The 18 individual awards consist of $60000 in direct costs. The money will go to 16 researchers from various institutions across the United States and Canada. Among the awardees is James Grinias, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Rowan University, an editorial board member of LCGC International, and host of the podcast Analytically Speaking. Grinias and his team received funding for their project titled an open-source modular automated laboratory system for real-time monitoring of continuous electrosynthesis.

Scialog, which was named after a combination of “science” and “dialog,” aims to combine research, intensive dialogue, and community building to address scientific challenges of global significance (3). Developed in 2010 by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA), the initiative involves building networks of scientists across disciplines by pushing for conversation around important scientific themes. With these collaborations, participants are encouraged to create high-risk, high-reward projects based on innovative ideas that they form throughout the conference.

During the event, RCSA Senior Program Director Andrew Feig explained that foundation has been designed to support innovative, boundary-pushing research. “If 100% of the proposals work exactly as described, we were not risky enough,” Feig said. “We want to reach far enough to transform the world.”

The second of three annual Scialog meetings this year was held from April 11-14, 2025, in Tucson, Arizona. At this conference, 45 fellows engaged in conversations around building community, discussing challenges and gaps in current knowledge, and designing collaborative projects. The keynote speaker, Nikki Pohl of Indiana University, Bloomington, shared lessons from her 20-year-long career as a synthetic organic chemist trying to build more automation into her laboratory. She also stressed the need for a culture shift in the scientific community, specifically for prioritize reproducibility and collaboration in designing automated solutions. This could thus spark the development and more widespread adoption of increasingly accessible and cost-effective technologies.

During breakout sessions, participants were encouraged to learn about each other and their science, tasked with picturing ways to collaborate with each other, how they could leverage their different approaches and methods, and what novel problems they could tackle together. Teams worked on different projects over the weekends, with 21 making brief proposal pitches at the end of the weekend.

Former RCSA President and CEO Daniel Linzer spoke positively about Scialog across different meetings. During his time at RCSA, Linzer helped expand Scialog through partnerships with approximately 30 different foundations, federal funding agencies, and individual philanthropists. These partnerships broadened Scialog’s reach. Further, Scialog is believed to help develop relationships between participants, allowing scientists to collaborate with each other across various opportunities.

“[Scialog’s formula] did work, and it continues to work ̶ over and over and over again,” Linzer said (1).

References

(1) Scialog. Seven Teams Win Scialog Awards for Automating Chemical Laboratories. Research Corporation For Science Advancement 2025. https://rescorp.org/2025/06/seven-teams-win-scialog-awards-for-automating-chemical-laboratories/ (accessed 2025-7-2)

(2) Scialog. Automating Chemical Laboratories: 2024–2026. Research Corporation For Science Advancement 2025. https://rescorp.org/scialog/automating-chemical-laboratories/(accessed 2025-7-2)

(3) Scialog. Research Corporation For Science Advancement 2025. https://rescorp.org/scialog/ (accessed 2025-7-2)