{{Short description|American physicist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}{{Infobox scientist | name = Heather J. Kulik | workplaces = Massachusetts Institute of Technology | alma_mater = Cooper Union {{small | B.E. (2004)}} <br /> Massachusetts Institute of Technology {{small | Ph.D. (2009)}} | thesis_title = First-principles transition-metal catalysis : efficient and accurate approaches for studying enzymatic systems | thesis_url = http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/428134616 | thesis_year = 2009 | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = Judith Klinman, Todd Martinez | website = {{url| http://hjkgrp.mit.edu}} }}
'''Heather J. Kulik''' is an American computational materials scientist and engineer who is the Lammot Du Pont Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kulik |first=Heather J. |date=2024-07-02 |title=Professor Kulik named Lammot du Pont Professor |url=https://hjkgrp.mit.edu/post/24-07-01-heather-chair/ |access-date=2024-09-01 |website=Kulik Research Group |language=en-us}}</ref> Her research considers the computational design of new materials and the use of artificial intelligence to predict material properties.
== Early life and education == Kulik earned her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at Cooper Union in 2004. She moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her graduate studies, where she joined the department of materials science and engineering and worked under the supervision of Nicola Marzari.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|date=2019|title=Novartis Early Career Award: K. L. Hull / Leipziger Universitätsmedaille: E. Hey-Hawkins / Karl Ziegler Guest Professorship: K. Nozaki / Clara Immerwahr Award: M. Escudero-Escribano / Marion Milligan Mason Awards: V. E. Ferry, S. K. Fullerton, L. C. Hsiao, H. J. Kulik, C. S. Schindler|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/anie.201900118|journal=Angewandte Chemie International Edition|volume=58|issue=10|pages=2940–2941|doi=10.1002/anie.201900118|pmid=30680909 |s2cid=195661478 |issn=1521-3773|url-access=subscription}}</ref> During her doctoral research, she introduced a Hubbard ''U'' term to density functional theory calculations, which improved the study of transition metal complexes.<ref name=":0">{{Cite thesis|title=First-principles transition-metal catalysis: efficient and accurate approaches for studying enzymatic systems|date=2009|language=English|first=Heather J|last=Kulik|oclc=428134616 }}</ref> Density functional theory allows for the prediction and study of new materials with limited computational cost. Amongst these materials, Kulik concentrated on transition metal complexes, as their highly localized electrons make the unphysical decollimation that occurs in the simplifications of DFT inappropriate.<ref name=":0" /> She graduated in 2009 with her Ph.D. in materials science and engineering.
Kulik then conducted postdoctoral research with Felice Lightstone at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She then worked alongside Todd Martínez at Stanford University and Judith Klinman at University of California, Berkeley on the large-scale electronic structures of biomolecules.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Joseph R. Mares '24 Career Development Professor in Chemical Engineering|url=https://csbphd.mit.edu/faculty/heather-j-kulik|website=MIT}}</ref>
== Research and career == In 2013, Kulik joined the faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the Joseph R. Mares Career Development Chair.<ref name=":1" /> She specializes in computational modeling and artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery of new materials and catalysts. In particular, Kulik develops new strategies to improve the accuracy of density functional theory.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kulik Research Group |url=http://hjkgrp.mit.edu/ |access-date=2021-03-30 |website=hjkgrp.mit.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|website=Resnick Institute |title=Heather J. Kulik |url=https://archive.resnick.caltech.edu/symposium2018-kulik.php|access-date=2021-03-30|archive-date=2021-08-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809200514/https://archive.resnick.caltech.edu/symposium2018-kulik.php}}</ref>
== Awards and honors == * 2017 I&ECR, Class of 2017 Influential Researcher<ref>{{Cite web|title=Heather Kulik featured as I&ECR 2017 Class of Influential Researchers – MIT Chemical Engineering|url=https://cheme.mit.edu/news-post/heather-kulik-featured-as-iecr-2017-class-of-influential-researchers/|access-date=2021-03-30|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=2017-09-27|title=Announcing the 2017 Class of Influential Researchers|journal=Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research|volume=56|issue=38|page=10515|doi=10.1021/acs.iecr.7b03758|issn=0888-5885|last1=Savage |first1=Phillip E.}}</ref> * 2018 DARPA Young Faculty Award<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Heather Kulik earns DARPA Director's Fellowship – MIT Chemical Engineering|url=https://cheme.mit.edu/heather-kulik-darpa-fellowship/|access-date=2021-03-30|language=en-US}}</ref> * 2019 Journal of Physical Chemistry Lectureship Award<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-07-02|title=Meet the 2019 Recipients of The Journal of Physical Chemistry and PHYS Division Lectureship Awards|url=https://axial.acs.org/2019/07/02/meet-the-2019-recipients-of-the-journal-of-physical-chemistry-and-phys-division-lectureship-awards/|access-date=2021-03-30|website=ACS Axial|language=en-US}}</ref> * 2019 National Science Foundation CAREER Award<ref>{{Cite web|title=Heather Kulik wins the 2019 NSF CAREER Award – MIT Chemical Engineering|url=https://cheme.mit.edu/news-post/heather-kulik-wins-the-2019-nsf-career-award/|access-date=2021-03-30|language=en-US}}</ref> * 2019 AAAS Marion Milligan Mason Award<ref>{{Cite web|title=AAAS Marion Milligan Mason Award Recipients |website=American Association for the Advancement of Science|url=https://www.aaas.org/awards/mason-award/recipients|access-date=2021-03-30 |language=en}}</ref> * 2019 Princeton University Saville Lecturer<ref>{{Cite web|title=2019 Saville Lecturer: Heather J. Kulik |url=https://cbe.princeton.edu/events/saville |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214051837/https://cbe.princeton.edu/events/saville |archive-date=2021-02-14 |access-date=2021-03-30|website=Princeton University}}</ref> * 2019 Novartis Early Career Award<ref name=":3" /> * 2020 DARPA Director's Fellowship Award<ref name=":2" /> * 2021 Sloan Research Fellowship<ref>{{Cite news |title=Eight from MIT named 2021 Sloan Research Fellows|url=https://news.mit.edu/2021/eight-from-mit-named-sloan-research-fellows-0219|access-date=2021-03-30|work=MIT News |language=en}}</ref> * 2025 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers<ref>{{Cite web |last=Silva |first=Jordan |date=2025-02-03 |title=Eleven MIT faculty receive Presidential Early Career Awards |url=https://news.mit.edu/2025/mit-faculty-receive-presidential-early-career-awards-0203 |website=MIT News }}</ref>
== Selected publications == {{Scholia|author}} *{{Cite journal |arxiv=cond-mat/0608285 |author-link1=Heather Kulik |author1=Heather J Kulik |author2=Matteo Cococcioni |author3=Damian A Scherlis |author4=Nicola Marzari |bibcode=2006PhRvL..97j3001K |doi=10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.97.103001 |issn=0031-9007 |issue=10 |journal=Physical Review Letters |language=en |article-number=103001 |pmid=17025809 |date=5 September 2006 |title=Density functional theory in transition-metal chemistry: a self-consistent Hubbard U approach |volume=97}} *{{Cite journal |arxiv=1702.05771 |author-link2=Heather Kulik |author1=Jon Paul Janet |author2=Heather J Kulik |doi=10.1039/C7SC01247K |issn=2041-6520 |issue=7 |journal=Chemical Science |language=en |pages=5137-5152 |pmc=6100542 |pmid=30155224 |date=17 May 2017 |title=Predicting electronic structure properties of transition metal complexes with neural networks |volume=8}} *{{Cite journal |author-link1=Heather Kulik |author1=Heather J Kulik |doi=10.1063/1.4922693 |issn=0021-9606 |issue=24 |journal=The Journal of Chemical Physics |language=en |page=240901 |pmid=26133400 |date=1 June 2015 |title=Perspective: Treating electron over-delocalization with the DFT+U method |volume=142|hdl=1721.1/101201 |hdl-access=free }} *{{Cite book |author-link2=Heather Kulik |author1=Jon Paul Janet |author2=Heather J. Kulik |doi=10.1021/ACS.INFOCUS.7E4001 |isbn=978-0-8412-9900-9 |language=en |date=19 May 2020 |title=Machine Learning in Chemistry}}
== References == {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulik, Heather J.}} Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Category:Cooper Union alumni Category:American women physicists Category:American artificial intelligence researchers Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people