Ada Fang

Ada Fang

I am a PhD candidate at Harvard in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, advised by Prof. Marinka Zitnik. I am a graduate student fellow at the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence.

My research lies at the intersection of biology and AI. I work on developing better AI models to understand molecules and the AI scientists to empower autonomous discovery. I have previously held research positions at Google DeepMind and Genentech.

Featured Research

* means equal contribution

AutoScientists
2026
AutoScientists: Self-Organizing Agent Teams for Long-Running Scientific Experimentation
Ada Fang*, Shanghua Gao*, Marinka Zitnik
preprint coming soon
Invited talk at Scale AI and Human Frontier Collective (May 2026)
Top Three Talk at Harvard Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department Symposium (2026)
ClawInstitute
2026
ClawInstitute: A Research Exchange for AI Scientists
Shanghua Gao*, Ada Fang*, Marinka Zitnik
preprint coming soon
Project
REL
2026
Evaluating Relational Reasoning in LLMs with REL
Lukas Fesser*, Yasha Ektefaie*, Ada Fang*, Marinka Zitnik
ICML 2026
Paper Project Code Dataset
IGLOO
2026
Tokenizing Loops of Antibodies
Ada Fang, Robert G. Alberstein, Simon Kelow, Frédéric A. Dreyer
mAbs
Paper Code
ATOMICA
2025
Learning Universal Representations of Intermolecular Interactions with ATOMICA
Ada Fang, Michael Desgagné, Zaixi Zhang, Andrew Zhou, Joseph Loscalzo, Bradley L. Pentelute, Marinka Zitnik
bioRxiv
First prize poster award at Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center Symposium on Biomedical Science and AI (2026)
Selected for Oral at ICML GenBio Workshop (2025)
Best Theoretical Chemistry Talk at Harvard Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department Symposium (2024)
Paper Code Model Dataset
AI Agents
2024
Empowering biomedical discovery with AI agents
Shanghua Gao, Ada Fang*, Yepeng Huang*, Valentina Giunchiglia*, Ayush Noori*, Jonathan Richard Schwarz, Yasha Ektefaie, Jovana Kondic, Marinka Zitnik
Cell
Paper
AI for Science
2023
Artificial intelligence for science in quantum, atomistic, and continuum systems
Xuan Zhang, Limei Wang, Jacob Helwig, ... Ada Fang, ... Shuiwang Ji
Foundations and Trends in Machine Learning
Paper
Molecular Interactions
2023
Mapping the intermolecular interaction universe through self-supervised learning on molecular crystals
Ada Fang, Zaixi Zhang, Marinka Zitnik
NeurIPS 2023 AI for Science Workshop
Paper
MOF
2022
Quantification of Photocyclization Kinetics and Its Temperature Dependence in a Cofacial Metal–Organic Framework
Eleanor R. Kearns, Jack K. Clegg, William Lewis, Ada Fang, Bun Chan, Deanna M. D'Alessandro
Chemistry of Materials
Paper
Cannabinoid
2020
Synthesis and in Vitro Cannabinoid Receptor 1 Activity of Recently Detected Synthetic Cannabinoids
Annelies Cannaert, Eric Sparkes, Edward Pike, Jia Lin Luo, Ada Fang, Richard C. Kevin, Ross Ellison, Roy Gerona, Samuel D. Banister, Christophe P. Stove
ACS Chemical Neuroscience
Paper

Experience

Google DeepMind
Google DeepMind
Student Researcher, AlphaGenome Team
London, UK
2025
Genentech
Genentech, Prescient Design
Internship
New York City, US
2025
McKinsey
McKinsey & Company, QuantumBlack
Data Science Fellow
Sydney, Australia
2022
Optiver
Optiver
Quantitative Trader Intern
Sydney, Australia
2021
Google
Google
Software Engineering Intern
Sydney, Australia
2020

Education

Harvard
Harvard University
PhD in Chemistry. Advisor: Prof. Marinka Zitnik
Cambridge, MA
2022 – 2027 (expected)
MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cross-Registered Student
Cambridge, MA
2022 – 2023
University of Sydney
University of Sydney
B.Sc. (Honours), Chemistry & Mathematics. University Medal
Sydney, Australia
2018 – 2021
UC Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
Exchange Semester. 4.00 GPA
Berkeley, CA
Fall 2019

Fellowships & Awards

2023
  • Kempner Institute Fellow, Harvard University (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative)
2022
  • University Medal for Honours in Chemistry, University of Sydney
  • $250,000 XPRIZE Student Prize for Carbon Removal (Elon Musk Foundation)
  • Janet Elspeth Crawford Prize in Chemistry
2019
  • Australian Gov. Endeavour Leadership Program Mobility Grant
  • Charles E Fawsitt Prize for Chemistry
  • Dean's List of Excellence in Academic Performance
  • Mrs Elva Rae Award for highest achieving female student in mathematics
2018
  • Vice Chancellor Scholarship (top 0.05% in New South Wales, Australia)
  • Liversidge Chemistry Scholarship
  • 49th International Chemistry Olympiad Bronze Medal

Community Engagement

Conference Workshop Organizer
AI for Science Workshop at NeurIPS 2025 and ICML 2024
2024 – 2025
Competition Organizer
AI for Science Dataset Proposal Competition, Sponsored by Renaissance Philanthropy
2024
Student Volunteer
New Frontiers of AI for Drug Discovery and Development at NeurIPS 2023
2023
House Tutor
Harvard College, Lowell House
2024 – Present