UF celebrates three innovators shaping the future of AI research
Three University of Florida scientists are redefining what’s possible—from the operating room to the molecular level.
At a ceremony this week at the Earl and Christy Powell University House, UF Artificial Intelligence and Informatics Research Institute (AIIRI) honored Dr. Adrian Roitberg, Dr. Kiley Graim, and Dr. Jeremy Balch with the first-ever AI Research Awards, recognizing groundbreaking work that demonstrates how artificial intelligence is transforming science, medicine and engineering.
The event was part of AI Days, a weeklong celebration organized by the AI² Center in collaboration with the AI and Informatics Research Institute, the Center for Instructional Technology and Training, the Center for Teaching Excellence and UF Information Technology. Sponsors included NVIDIA, Mark III Systems, Vobile, Cisco and Vast Data.
Alina Zare, Ph.D., director of the AI and Informatics Research Institute, introduced the Awards.
“These are our inaugural awards for the AI and Informatics Research Institute, and I’ll tell you, they were incredibly competitive,” Zare said. The awards, she explained, recognize AI research “across a continuum of disciplines and individuals, from emerging scholars to established leaders.”
She went on to describe the review process: “We had a two-stage review process because we had so many amazing applicants and nominees,” she continued. “Faculty across campus scored the nominations based on our rubric, we identified finalists and an external committee selected the awardees. This was a really difficult set of amazing applications.”
With that, Zare presented the first of the institute’s three research honors, recognizing scientists whose work exemplifies AI’s expanding role in discovery and innovation at UF.
Adrian Roitberg: Accelerating discovery at the molecular level
Adrian Roitberg, the Frank E. Harris Professor of Theoretical Chemistry, received the AI Research Excellence Award for developing neural-network models that dramatically accelerate molecular simulations. Known as ANI models, these AI tools learn from quantum-mechanical data to predict molecular behavior with the same accuracy but at a fraction of the computing time. His team’s models have become valuable resources for researchers worldwide.
Using UF’s HiPerGator AI supercomputer, Roitberg’s lab recently simulated an early-Earth atmosphere that produced amino acids and other molecules essential for life, a major breakthrough for AI-driven chemistry.
Kiley Graim: Making precision medicine more equitable
Kiley Graim, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, earned the AI Research Early Career Award for using AI to advance cancer biology and precision medicine. Her work bridges computer science and genetics to make medical AI models more accurate and equitable.
Graim leads one of the largest comparative oncology initiatives in the world, analyzing nearly 200,000 tumors across 240 species to uncover shared biological mechanisms that can improve patient outcomes.
Jeremy Balch: Bringing AI into the operating room
Dr. Jeremy Balch, a general-surgery resident and recent Ph.D. graduate in biomedical informatics, received the AI Research Dissertation Award for developing AI tools that improve surgical safety and efficiency. His dissertation applied natural-language processing, computer vision and data modeling to automate tasks such as trauma coding and instrument tracking.
Balch’s work lays the foundation for integrating AI directly into surgical workflows and improving real-time decision-making in hospitals.