Dr. Boris Kozinsky is a preeminent scholar whose pioneering work bridges fundamental physics of materials properties with cutting-edge computational techniques to accelerate the discovery of next-generation materials. He currently serves as Gordon McKay Professor of Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Boris Kozinsky held the position of Principal Scientist, Computational Materials Design at Bosch Research prior to joining Harvard University in 2018; as of 2025, he is Principal Scientist at Bosch Research alongside his Harvard professorships; he established and led the atomistic computational materials design team at Bosch prior to his Harvard appointment, and now holds a dual role, collaborating with both institutions. After completing his B.S. degrees in Physics, Mathematics, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, he earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the same institution in 2007, establishing himself as a rising star in computational materials science. Boris Kozinsky founded the Bosch RTC Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2007 where he led the atomistic computational materials design team for over a decade before establishing the Materials Intelligence Research group at Harvard University in 2018.
Dr. Kozinsky's transformative research has fundamentally reshaped computational materials design through the strategic integration of atomistic and electronic structure computations with machine learning methodologies, enabling unprecedented insights into atomic-scale transport and reaction mechanisms that control performance in energy systems. His work has provided critical design rules for quantum-level microscopic effects in complex materials, particularly in batteries, thermoelectrics, catalysts, and alloys where experimental characterization faces significant limitations. With an impressive citation count exceeding 13,300 according to Google Scholar, his computational approaches have directly enabled the design of practical materials with enhanced properties for real-world applications across multiple industries. His group's development of machine learning-accelerated algorithms has dramatically reduced the time and resources required for materials discovery, establishing new paradigms for how researchers approach the design of functional materials for energy storage and conversion.
Beyond his technical contributions, Dr. Kozinsky has profoundly influenced the field through his visionary leadership in creating synergistic collaborations between Harvard and Bosch Research teams, establishing a pioneering model for industry-academia partnerships in computational science. His exceptional mentorship was recognized with the prestigious McDonald Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising, while his research group achieved remarkable distinction with his PhD students becoming finalists for the Gordon Bell Prize, the highest honor in computational science. As an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society, he continues to shape the future of materials discovery through his focus on ionic, electronic, and thermal transport phenomena in complex materials. Looking ahead, Dr. Kozinsky's work promises to further accelerate the development of sustainable energy technologies by leveraging the rapidly expanding power of computation and data science to address humanity's most pressing energy challenges through atomically precise materials design.
