Max Chen Huang

I work at the intersection of theoretical physics, computation, and energy materials — using first-principles methods, statistical mechanics, and machine learning to accelerate the discovery of materials for clean energy.

I'm a third-year undergraduate at Penn in the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER), studying Physics and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. I research in the Vojvodic Lab, where my work sits at the intersection of theoretical condensed matter, atomistic simulation, and energy materials.

I believe the defining breakthroughs of this century won't come from AI and software alone, but from applying advanced computation to hardware: new materials, new energy systems, large-scale engineering. The demand for energy is rising steeply, and meeting it sustainably will take radical progress in the physical world, not just the digital one. Clean energy innovation — fusion especially — isn't just important; it's urgent.

My goal is to help build the theory that connects modern AI to the real physics of materials — so we can discover and test what the energy systems of the future will depend on. I care as much about the collaborative community that makes this science possible as I do about the science itself.