Dr. Christoph Kreisbeck
Aixelo Inc. Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Christoph Kreisbeck is a founder and CEO of Aixelo Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based technology company providing the chemicals and materials industry with enterprise software that integrates AI-optimized decision-making into a modernized R&D process.
An accomplished pioneer in accelerated material discovery, Christoph has a proven track record developing conceptional frameworks toward an AI-integrated laboratory robot system, integrating simulation, machine learning and other digital technologies to spawn new research methodologies and concepts.
Christoph’s areas of expertise include the computational characterization of energy transport in light-active proteins and organic materials via structure-based methods as well as machine learning tools.
Prior to launching Aixelo, Christoph co-founded Kebotix, a technology platform company for new chemicals and materials where, as chief product officer and later chief commercial officer, he oversaw contract innovation projects and secured successful partnerships with tier-1 multinational companies. Under his leadership, Christoph’s team won the prestigious new product award for Kebotix’s AI-assisted retrosynthesis software at SLAS 2022.
In the past decade, Christoph was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University and Humboldt University of Berlin. During that period, he spent nearly two years as a software engineer in Germany, focusing on automated driving. Christoph earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Regensburg in Germany.
Dr. Manuel Tsotsalas
Aixelo Inc. Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Manuel Tsotsalas wears several hats that all fit comfortably in the area of experimental chemistry devoted to health and sustainability. He is chief technology officer and co-founder of Aixelo Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based technology company providing software for the chemicals and materials industry to facilitate the integration of AI-powered decision-making into modern research and development procedures. At present, he is also a visiting lecturer at Northwestern University, appointed under the Feodor-Lynen-experienced researcher grant. In addition, Manuel serves as a tenured Helmholtz Young Investigator Group leader at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.
Manuel's draw toward experimental chemistry stems from a hunger for the new, be it through exploratory research or testing hypotheses. He zeroes in on research that “helps bring the field forward," to use his own words. Manuel's interests led him to learning about data science and research data management. The data he produces is FAIR (Findable Accessible Interoperable Re-usable) in addition to having the potential to bring new insights, if not development of new solutions to urgent challenges involving health and sustainability and health.
Aixelo is the perfect playbox for a scientist with such ambitions. Manuel believes that Aixelo can help other experimental chemistry and material science labs implement these tools and democratize access to ML and AI tools and thereby help to accelerate the research domain further. Manuel’s current work in academia inspires him to develop free, tailored versions of Aixelo-spawned technology for research groups focused on health and sustainability.
Manuel obtained his Ph.D. from Münster University and his Habilitation in Organic Chemistry from KIT. His academic path has taken him to several esteemed institutions worldwide, including Kyoto University, Cornell University, Northwestern University and Rennes University.
Dr. Yi Luo
Aixelo Inc. Co-Founder and Machine Learning Chemist
Yi Luo is a founder of Aixelo Inc., a Cambridge, Mass-based technology firm offering AI-integrated enterprise software for the chemicals and materials sector. Yi is developing AI tools, constructing the database for MOF (metal–organic frameworks) material synthesis recipe, and integrating machine learning methods and large language models to data mining and synthesis condition prediction.
As part of his drive for transforming research into practical industry solutions, Yi is also designing interfaces of ChatBots that enables humans to talk with machine learning models and data. This innovative technology facilitates seamless communication and fosters conversation as natural as interacting with a human.
Yi is a postdoctoral fellow and research assistant at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. His Ph.D. work at KIT, guided by Prof. Christof Woll and Dr. Manuel Tsotsalas, also an Aixelo co-founder, revolves around harnessing machine learning for MOF material production.
Prior to KIT, Yi had several short-term research experiences at the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC) and Synchrotron SOLEIL. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, in chemistry and organic chemistry, respectively, from Wuhan University in China. His Ph.D. from KIT is in physical chemistry and earned in 2022. Yi is proficient in Chinese, English and German.
Dr. Pascal Friederich
Aixelo Inc. Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Pascal Friederich is a founder of Aixelo Inc. and a professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. His expertise in the development of AI and machine learning methods for sciences raises Aixelo’s ability to better design and understand molecules and materials. Since earning his doctorate in 2016, Friederich’s work on AI and ML methods has led to a rich background in multiscaling materials modeling and a dedication to discovering new computational methods. As a professor in computer science with applications in materials science and chemistry, Friederich speaks the "languages" of multiple disciplines, thus bridging the gap between fundamental AI/ML methods development and innovative applications of AI/ML methods to relevant challenges.
Co-founding Aixelo enables Friederich to see first-hand the transfer of advances developed in his academic lab to an industry where R&D teams have an insatiable hunger to solve world problems through science-based state-of-the art methods. Friederich’s work on literature data extraction and materials synthesis prediction at KIT, in collaboration with Dr. Manuel Tsotsalas and Dr. Yi Luo, led to their teaming up with Dr. Christoph Kreisbeck to found Aixelo. More than a sound business venture, the decision to create the start-up widens the “clear path” Friederich saw in how the team’s work can have a direct real-world impact in the materials and chemistry industry.
As chief scientific officer, Friederich will chair Aixelo's Scientific Advisory Board now being formed. Composed of top researchers from various disciplines and backgrounds, the board will advise on the company’s direction and share opinions related to the latest developments in AI/ML technology and strategic opportunities.
Friederich earned his Ph.D. summa cum laude from KIT in addition to master’s and bachelor’s degrees in physics. Among other honors, he was awarded the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize from the German Research Foundation in 2022 and the Otto Haxel Award for dissertation excellence in 2018. His pending patents relate to organic molecule light emitters and molecular computing methods and systems for solving computational problems.
Dr. Christoph Brabec
Brabec’s dedication to bridge the gap between academia and industry has led to such roles as director at the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nuremberg for Renewable Energies (HI ERN), which researches and develops material- and process-based solutions for climate-neutral, sustainable and cost-effective utilization of renewable energies. In this capacity, he strives to accelerate materials discovery by combining data driven and knowledge-driven research strategies into autonomous operating research lines with the potential to transform advancements in various scientific disciplines. Brabec’s career includes having served as head of FAU’s Material Science and Engineering Department, where he has been a professor since 2009. An accomplished academic, his h-index, a metric for evaluating the cumulative impact of an author’s scholarly output and performance, is an outstanding 148. In the private sector, he has taken on executive positions at such companies as Konarka Technologies and Siemens Corporate Technology.
Dr. Azalia Mirhoseini
Mirhoseini’s research within Stanford’s Computer Science Department centers on developing capable, reliable and efficient AI systems for high-impact, real-world problems. Her work includes generalized learning-based methods for systems and chip design, self-improving AI models through interactions with the world, and scalable deep learning optimization. Prior to Stanford, Mirhoseini worked on advancing the capability of large language models at Anthropic, and at Google Brain she led the ML forcSystems team she co-founded, focusing on automating and optimizing computer systems and chip design. AI methods created by her have been used in the design of frontier large language models, as well as state-of-the-art Google AI accelerators (TPU). As a member of Aixelo’s Scientific Advisory Board, Mirhoseini said she hopes to contribute new ideas on AI methodologies in addition to insights on the software development from scientific idea to software product.
Dr. Artur Schweidtmann
Focused on researching computer algorithms from the areas of AI, ML and process systems engineering with applications in chemical engineering, Schweidtmann develops algorithms and applies them to various chemical engineering domains including robotic chemistry, process optimization, surrogate modeling, and molecular property prediction. Besides his assistant professor role at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), he heads the Process Intelligence Research Group at the Chemical Engineering Department. In addition, he is director of the Chemical Engineering & Medical Imaging AI Lab (CHEME AI Lab) that was established through the TU Delft AI Initiative. Schweidtmann looks forward to contributing new ideas on AI algorithms and methods on the Aixelo board in addition to offering insights on software development from scientific idea to software product.
Dr. Randall Snurr
Snurr’s expertise is in using computational modeling to accelerate the discovery of materials for particular applications. He is recognized as a pioneer in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), having worked in this field since its infancy some 20 years ago. The goal of his research at Northwestern University is to develop new nanoporous materials to solve important energy and sustainability problems, including energy storage, carbon capture, atmospheric water harvesting, and more energy-efficient methods for separating mixtures. On the Northwestern faculty since 1995, Snurr, with an impressive h-index of 113, has been a John G. Searle professor for 10 years, six of those also as chair of the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering. Snurr noted that Aixelo's aim to accelerate materials discovery aligns well with his own research goals.
