Postdoc Accomplishments

News / Postdoc Accomplishments

ACT-Africa 2026 Concludes, Charts a Path for Contextual AI Innovation in Africa

The four-day ACT-Africa 2026 workshop, themed “Introduction to Foundation Models for Addressing African Community Challenges,” successfully concluded on September 9th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Addis Ababa . The landmark event brought together researchers, data scientists and developers from across the continent and the globe to tackle a critical challenge: adapting powerful AI technologies to ...

News / Postdoc Accomplishments

How nature lovers can aid ecology with an assist from AI

Events / Postdoc Accomplishments

Spark Forum

Overview Research translation is not a final handoff. SPARK encourages participants to consider stakeholders, values, constraints, reproducibility, and adoption from the beginning of the research lifecycle—not only after the technical work is complete. The forum is being designed primarily for current and alumni Schmidt AI in Science Fellows from diverse scientific backgrounds and levels of ...

News / Postdoc Accomplishments

A Day in the Life of a MIDAS Postdoctoral Fellow

From CT-scanning leaves to exploring Michigan’s outdoors, Will Weaver‘s work as a MIDAS postdoctoral fellow bridges research, collaboration and discovery. A MIDAS postdoctoral fellowship is about more than conducting research. Fellows become part of a community of researchers working across disciplines, learning from one another and developing new approaches to some of today’s most challenging ...

News / Postdoc Accomplishments

MIDAS Postdoc Bootcamp 2026 – Welcoming the New Cohort

MIDAS is pleased to announce the arrival of the 2026 cohort of postdocs, including the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellows (AISP), the Eric and Wendy Schmidt African Faculty Fellows (AFF), and the Michigan Data Science (MDS) Fellows. They were joined by the 2026 cohort of the MIDAS Postdoctoral Affiliates (PA).  Over ...

News / Postdoc Accomplishments

Announcing the 2026 cohort of Postdoctoral Affiliates

The Michigan Institute for Data & AI in Society (MIDAS) is proud to announce its 2026 cohort of Postdoctoral Affiliates, 10 outstanding researchers from diverse departments across the University of Michigan. This program is a key initiative in MIDAS’s mission to promote the development and application of AI and data science methodologies for scientific research ...

Postdoc Accomplishments

AI tool reveals climate shifts may have fueled bursts of bird evolution

University of Michigan researchers used AI to uncover evidence that major climate shifts coincided with rapid bursts of bird evolution over the past 45 million years. Lead author Jacob Berv developed the novel statistical framework that enabled the team to analyze whole-skeleton data from thousands of bird species, revealing how climate change shaped the evolution ...

News / Postdoc Accomplishments

Commun-AI-ty Workshop Brings Researchers and Educators Together to Reimagine AI Science Communication

What if AI literacy weren’t developed in research labs alone, but co-designed with the communities it is intended to serve? That question brought together 54 participants from five countries for Commun-AI-ty: Building Science Communication Skills for Explaining AI in Science, a 3.5-day workshop held at the University of Michigan from June 23–26, 2026. Made possible ...

News / Postdoc Accomplishments

Large-Scale Evolution Simulations on PSC’s Neocortex Tackle Questions about Hypermutator Evolution

Matthew Andres Moreno, a Schmidt AI in Science Fellow, led groundbreaking research using the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center’s Neocortex supercomputer to investigate why rapidly mutating organisms (“hypermutators”) rarely dominate in nature. By scaling evolutionary simulations from thousands to 1.5 billion virtual organisms, Moreno’s work uncovered how population size and the availability of beneficial mutations shape evolutionary ...