Michigan Institute for Data & AI in Society announces 2026 fellows
Written by: Justin Varney
The Michigan Institute for Data & AI in Society (MIDAS) is welcoming a new cohort of postdoctoral researchers and international faculty for 2026, further strengthening its global community that advances artificial intelligence and data science across disciplines.
Eleven new postdoctoral fellows have joined MIDAS through competitive programs supported in part by Schmidt Sciences, including the Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Michigan Data Science Postdoctoral Fellowship. The programs bring early-career researchers to the University of Michigan for interdisciplinary work at the intersection of artificial intelligence and data science, with projects spanning precision cosmology, plant climate resilience, equitable weather prediction, advanced air mobility and infrastructure design.
Both fellowships are central to MIDAS’s effort to catalyze the transformative use of data science across disciplines to achieve lasting societal impact through research, training, outreach and partnership. The new fellows will join a close-knit postdoctoral community, with shared workspace at MIDAS and structured opportunities for collaborative learning and engagement.
MIDAS is also welcoming six new fellows in the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science African Faculty Fellowship, which brings faculty from African institutions to collaborate with University of Michigan researchers. Their work spans a range of critical domains, including uncertainty-aware AI for resilient and sustainable energy systems, AI-driven discovery of materials for energy storage and water purification, and machine learning approaches to traffic data and infrastructure systems.
Across all programs, fellows participate in interdisciplinary research, community-driven initiatives and professional development opportunities, including AI Carpentries workshops.
“The breadth of research in this cohort is remarkable, from climate and astronomy to materials science and protection of marine fisheries” said Bill Currie, Schmidt program co-director, professor and research associate dean in research and engagement and professor at the School for Environment and Sustainability. “Just as important is their commitment to collaboration and building connections across disciplines and institutions. These fellows are advancing AI in their fields while strengthening a more integrated research community at Michigan and beyond.”
MIDAS continues to invest in emerging talent and global partnerships, supporting researchers working at the forefront of AI-driven discovery.
The full list of 2026 MIDAS postdoctoral fellows and African faculty fellows, including discipline, affiliated department, faculty mentors and degree-granting institution, is:
Schmidt Postdocs
Ph.D., Physics
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow
AI Mentor: Camille Avestruz, Physics
Science Mentor: Feige Wang, Astronomy
Research Theme: Physics-Informed AI for Precision Cosmology Data Quality
Ph.D., Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow
AI Mentor: Minji Kim, Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics
Science Mentor: Alexandre Marand, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Research Theme: AI for Predicting Plant Climate Resilience
Ph.D., Atmospheric Science
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow
AI Mentor: Mohammed Ombadi, Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering
Science Mentor: Adriana Bailey, Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering
Research Theme: Better and more equitable weather prediction using AI
Ph.D., Civil Engineering
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow
AI Mentor: Necmiye Ozay, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Science Mentor: Dimitra Panagou, Aerospace Engineering
Research Theme: AI for decision-making in advanced air mobility
Ph.D., Civil Engineering
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow
AI Mentor: Qiaozhu Mei, Information
Science Mentor: Xi Jessie Yang, Industrial and Operations Engineering
Research Theme: Generative AI for Infrastructure System Design
Ph.D., Ecology
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow
AI Mentor: Jason Corso, Robotics
Science Mentor: Jacob Allgeier, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Research Theme: AI for monitoring coastal fisheries
Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow
AI Mentor: Talia Moore, Robotics
Science Mentor: Luis Zaman, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Center for the Study of Complex Systems
Research Theme: Open-ended evolution of artificial life/digital organism
Ph.D., Oceanography
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow
AI Mentor: Alan Papalia, Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
Science Mentor: Brian Arbic, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Research Theme: AI Frameworks for Autonomous Ocean Observing
Ph.D., Marine Environmental Science
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow
AI Mentor: Andrew Gronewold, School for Environment and Sustainability
Science Mentor: Rose Cory, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Research Theme: Biogeochemistry-informed AI for forecasting harmful algal blooms
Michigan Data Science Postdocs
Ph.D., Statistics
Michigan Data Science Fellow
Faculty Mentors: Irina Gaynanova, Biostatistics; Sung Kyun Park, Epidemiology
Research Theme: Modeling diabetes heterogeneity with high dimensional fused data
Ph.D., Educational Psychology
Michigan Data Science Fellow
Faculty Mentors: Vitliy Popov, Department of Learning Health Sciences; Xu Wang, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Research Theme: Interpretive multimodal learning analytics for medical education
Schmidt African Faculty Fellows
Ph.D., Scientific Computing and Industrial Modeling
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science African Faculty Fellow
Faculty Host: Van-Hai Bui, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Theme: Uncertainty-aware AI for resilient sustainable energy systems
Ph.D., Environmental Science
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science African Faculty Fellow
Faculty Host: Y Z, Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences
Research Theme: AI-Driven Discovery of Redox Materials for Sustainable Energy Storage
Ph.D., Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science African Faculty Fellow
Faculty Host: Gen Li, Biostatistics
Research Theme: AI-Guided Design of Beneficial Synthetic Microbial Communitie
Ph.D., Material Science
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science African Faculty Fellow
Faculty Host: Jovan Kamcev, Chemical Engineering
Research Theme: ML Models for Water Purification Membranes
Ph.D., Computer Science
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science African Faculty Fellow
Faculty Host: H.V. Jagadish, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Research Theme: Cherry-Picking and Uncertainty AI Models for Traffic Data
Ph.D., Physics
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science African Faculty Fellow
Faculty Host: Thomas Truskett, Chemical Engineering
Research Theme: Integrating simulations and ML to decode protein dynamics
The call for applications for the 2027 cohort will be published in August 2026.
For more information about the AI in Science Fellowship, please visit our program page.
For more information about the Data Science Fellowship, please visit our training page.
For more information about the African Faculty Fellowship, please visit our training page.