Contact Information
myerscou@illinois.edu
(217) 300-4463
Department of Chemistry
350E Noyes Lab
600 S. Mathews Avenue
MC-712
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Areas
Biography
Prof. Jackson is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at UIUC and leader of the AI for Materials Group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. He obtained his B.A. in Physics from Wesleyan University, followed by a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University, working with Prof. Mark Ratner and Prof. Lin Chen. He was subsequently a Named Fellow and Assistant Scientist in the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory, working with Prof. Juan de Pablo. His group’s work at the interface of AI, molecular modeling, and soft materials chemistry has received recognition from Kavli, DOE, Cottrell, Dreyfus, AIChE COMSEF, ACS OpenEye, ACS PRF, and 3M.
Research Interests
AI for Chemistry and Materials
Coarse-Grained Electronic Structure Models
Modeling Electronic Processes (Doping, Electron/Exciton Transport, Reactivity, Synthesis) in Soft Materials
Research Description
The Jackson Lab works on problems at the interface of AI, molecular modeling, and materials chemistry, with specific interests in the development of coarse-grained electronic structure models, conjugated materials theory, and polymer design. There is a strong emphasis on method developments that enable accelerated electronic predictions in disordered systems.
Awards and Honors
2025 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award
2025 Cottrell Scholar Award
2024 Kavli Foundation Emerging Leader in Chemistry Award
2024 AIChE COMSEF Young Investigator Award
2024 Center for Advanced Study Fellow, UIUC
2024 School of Chemical Sciences Faculty Teaching Award, UIUC
2024 ACS OpenEye/Cadence Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in Computational Chemistry
2023 Early Career Board, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation
2023 Scialog Fellow for Automating Chemical Laboratories
2023 Department of Energy Early Career Program Award
2023 Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors Scholar, UIUC
2022 Selected as a Rising Star, Applied Physics Letters
2022 Selected as a Rising Star, Chemistry of Materials "Up-and-Coming Series"
2022 Selected as an Emerging Investigator, Molecular Systems Design & Engineering
2022 Selected as an Emerging Investigator, Journal of Chemical Physics
2021 Dreyfus Machine Learning in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Award
2021 ACS PRF Doctoral New Investigator Award
2021 3M Nontenured Faculty Award
Additional Campus Affiliations
Group Leader, Beckman Institute - AI for Materials
Affiliate faculty member, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Affiliate faculty member, Materials Science and Engineering