Flaviu Cipcigan is a researcher in climate technology and AI for scientific discovery. He earned his PhD in physics from the University of Edinburgh, where he also completed his Master's in Computational Physics, graduating with First Class Honours. During his undergraduate studies, he discovered new types of quantum algorithms that can be simulated by classical computers and developed a quantum computing simulator in Scala. He also worked as a summer research assistant, analysing data on surface magnetisation in the mid-Atlantic ridge.
Cipcigan is currently a Staff Research Scientist at IBM Research Europe, where he has been working since 2018. He is also a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of the Postgraduate Institute of Measurement Science at the National Physical Laboratory and a PhD supervisor at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Oxford.
His research interests broadly centre on the use of emerging technologies, such as AI, to accelerate scientific discovery. He has focused on applying AI to the discovery of sustainable materials, specifically antimicrobial peptides and materials for carbon capture. He has published papers in prominent journals such as ACS Nano, PNAS, Physical Review Letters, and Reviews of Modern Physics.
Cipcigan has received numerous awards and recognitions for his work. He was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Europe in Science & Healthcare in 2018 and has received multiple awards from IBM, including the Technical Achievement Award for AI-designed antimicrobial peptides and the Technical Achievement Award for Carbon Dioxide Capture & Storage Toolkit. He was also shortlisted for the Sam Edwards Prize of the Institute of Physics for his PhD thesis.
Outside of his professional pursuits, Cipcigan is an avid dancer and DJ of Argentine tango on the North West England and Manchester tango scenes. He has also produced music and premiered it on Soundcloud and a podcast called "Cafe Flav". Additionally, he has explored the intersection of art and science by realising his PhD research into physical form and documenting it in a short film screened at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. He has also written about the physical representations of knowledge in a book chapter.