Our webinars will showcase current and planned initiatives to develop standards and tools, research infrastructures, and developing cultures to support FAIR chemistry data preparation, publication, and reuse, and explore what’s needed to evolve a better future using chemistry data. Our speakers represent the wider chemistry community, with representatives from academia, industry, as well as national and international initiatives.
Webinar 1: AI in chemistry – Watch the recording
Tuesday September 23rd 2025, 3 pm (BST)
Speakers
- Jacob Al-Saleem, Data Science Manager, CAS, USA – SLIDES
- Bea (Birgit) Braun, Research Fellow, Dow Chemical Company, USA – SLIDES
- Garrison Cottrell, Professor for Computer Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, USA – SLIDES
Click here to find out more about this webinar.
Webinar 2: Data standards in chemistry – Watch the recoding
Tuesday October 21st 2025, 3 pm (BST)
Speakers
- Kamil Dziubek, University Assistant, University of Vienna, Austria – SLIDES
- Robert Hanson, Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, St. Olaf College, USA – SLIDES
- Wendy Patterson, Scientific Director, Beilstein-Institut, Germany – SLIDES
Click here to find out more about this webinar.
Webinar 3: Data management – Register here
Tuesday November 18th 2025, 3 pm (GMT)
Speakers
- Jonathan Hirst, Professor of Computational Chemistry, University of Nottingham, UK
- Kathryn Cowtan, Professor of Chemistry, University of York, UK
- Oliver Koepler, Head of Lab Linked Scientific Knowledge, TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, Germany
- Nicolas Triballeau, Director Drug Discovery Chemistry, Revvity Signals, France
Click here to find out more about this webinar.
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About ChemSpider
Explore more than 128 million structures on the ChemSpider database. Including over 200 data sources, ChemSpider is a valuable source of information for chemical scientists working with data.
Freely accessible and comprehensive, this rich source of structure-based chemistry information is a fundamental resource for chemical scientists working with data everywhere.
Jonathan Hirst is Professor in Computational Chemistry at the University of Nottingham. In 2020, he was awarded a Chair in Emerging Technologies by the Royal Academy of Engineering, focusing on research that will empower the development of next-generation molecules that chemical engineers and chemists make, by using machine learning to augment human decision-making. His tenure as Head of School (2013-2017) saw some significant transformations under his leadership, including the building of the GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratory and a successful bid for an Athena Swan Silver Award.
Kathryn is an interdisciplinary data scientist working in York Structural Biology Laboratory. She developed software for key steps in the solution of molecular structures from X-ray crystallography data and cryo-electron microscopy. In the last decade Kathryn has also become interested in data analysis problems in climate science. In addition to working with the UK Met Office and other organizations on historical observations and climate model outputs, she has also worked with psychologists and social scientists on understanding and responding to the motivated rejection of climate science. Recently Kathryn has developed a postgraduate taught programme in data science with major emphasis on reducing barriers to participation, especially in the areas of gender and neurodiversity.
Dr. Oliver Koepler is head of the Lab Linked Scientific Knowledge at TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, where he leads research and developments at the intersection of chemistry, data science, and knowledge engineering. Since 2005, he has been instrumental in transforming chemical research through digital innovation, developing e-infrastructures and research data management services that support scientists throughout the entire data lifecycle. He is a spokesperson of NFDI4Chem which has developed innovative tools like the SmartLab environment with Chemotion electronic lab notebook, the federation of Data repositories, the Terminology and Search Service that promote FAIR data principles across the chemistry community.
Nicolas 
Wendy Patterson is a member of the Board of Management of the Beilstein-Institut where she serves as Scientific Director. She is also a board member of Crossref and the InChI Trust, in addition to other non-profit organizations serving the community. The Beilstein-Institut supports the scientific community in communicating and disseminating high-quality information in chemistry and related sciences through open science practices. In addition, they support the scientific community by funding educational and cultural projects. The Beilstein-Institut recently established the Beilstein ChemInfo Labs, a project area supporting community-led digital infrastructure and standards projects in chemistry.
Dr. Jacob Al-Saleem, a Data Science Manager at CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, leads a team working to develop novel bioinformatic solutions using artificial intelligence to extract and connect scientific knowledge. He led the data science efforts for a team that developed a heterogeneous knowledge graph-based approach to identify repositionable therapeutics for COVID-19. His knowledge graph work is the foundation for the Life Sciences Knowledge Graph that is featured in CAS BioFinder. Dr. Al-Saleem earned his B.S. in Molecular Genetics and Ph.D. in Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology from The Ohio State University, where his work focused on the molecular virology of Human T cell Leukemia Viruses.
Birgit (Bea) Braun, Ph.D., is an R&D/TS&D Fellow for Digital Innovation in the Packaging, Specialty Plastics & Hydrocarbons R&D organization at Dow. She has held diverse roles across R&D and M&E, and for more than a decade, Bea has focused on applying Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to chemical manufacturing and materials research. She has led the development and deployment of numerous data science solutions across Dow, and today her work centers on unlocking value through holistic digital transformation. Bea earned a Dipl.-Ing. in Process Engineering with a specialization in Industrial Environmental Protection from Montanuniversität Leoben in Austria, she holds an M.S. in Environmental Science & Engineering and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.
Garrison W. (Gary) Cottrell is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego. He co-founded the Perceptual Expertise Network, and directed the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center, an NSF-sponsored Science of Learning Center spread across four countries. Gary’s research is strongly interdisciplinary. He is interested in Cognitive Science and Computational Cognitive Neuroscience and in applying AI to problems in other areas of science or engineering. Most recently he has been using deep learning to elucidate the structure of small (natural product) molecules from their NMR spectra in collaboration with Bill Gerwick at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. He received his PhD in 1985 from the University of Rochester and did a postdoc at the Institute of Cognitive Science at UCSD until 1987, when he joined the CSE Department.
