Leroy (Lee) Cronin

Lee Cronin is a Chemist. He is the Regius Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow and the Founder & CEO of Chemify. He is known for his approach to the digitization of chemistry and developing digital-to-chemical transformation known as Chemputing which can turn code into reactions and molecules. He has also developed a new theory for evolution and selection called assembly theory which aims to quantify and explain how selection can occur in chemistry before biology. Lee is also exploring how chemical systems can compute, and what is needed for the evolution of intelligence, as well as designing a new type of computational system that uses information encoded in chemical reactions and molecules. Lee is also building a chemical genesis engine that aims to explore the assembly of life from scratch in the laboratory.

 

Leroy (Lee) Cronin is the Regius Professor of Chemistry in Glasgow. Since the age of 9 Lee has wanted to explore chemistry using electronics to control matter. His research spans many disciplines and has four main aims: the construction of an artificial life form; the digitization of chemistry; the use of artificial intelligence in chemistry including the construction of ‘wet’ chemical computers; the exploration of complexity and information in chemistry. Much of this work is converging on exploring the assembly and engineering of emergent chemical systems and using artificial intelligence and closed-loop robotic systems for digitization and discovery. To achieve his aims, Cronin and his group regularly collaborate with Physical, Theoretical, Organic, Materials, and Biological Chemists as well as Scientists in Chemical and Electrical Engineering, Physics and Medicine. His group is organised and assembled transparently around ideas, avoids hierarchy, and aims to mentor researchers using a problem-based approach. Nothing is impossible until it is tried.

Employment History: 
2022 – Founder of Chemify
2020 – Advisory board member to LogicInk Corporation USA
2017 -Visiting Professor, Beyond Centre, Arizona State University, USA.
2015 - Founding Scientific Director, DeepMatterGroup PLC – on AIM since Sept 2015 
2013 - Regius Chair of Chemistry at University of Glasgow (warrant HM Queen Elizabeth II) Est. in 1817
2002 – University of Glasgow; 2002 Lecturer; 2005 Reader; 2006 Professor; 2009 Gardiner Chair 2009, 
2000 – 2002 Lecturer in Chemistry, Birmingham University; 1999 - 2000 Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship; 1997 – 1999 Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh