Ian Foster
@ianfoster42.bsky.social
Deep computing for deep science. UChicago & Argonne Nat Lab. Work with amazing people. Globus. AI, HPC, robotics for discovery. And sailing. And books. And music. And beauty.
I enjoyed my visit to U. Würzberg (thanks to host S. Kounev) where I gave a talk covering agents for scientific discovery, Academy agent framework, and agency as new organizing abstraction for CS agents4science.github.io/Assets/wurzb...
January 22, 2026 at 6:58 AM
I enjoyed my visit to U. Würzberg (thanks to host S. Kounev) where I gave a talk covering agents for scientific discovery, Academy agent framework, and agency as new organizing abstraction for CS agents4science.github.io/Assets/wurzb...
Reposted by Ian Foster
Yesterday it was cows using tools, today its penguins using satellite imagery.
January 20, 2026 at 6:44 PM
Yesterday it was cows using tools, today its penguins using satellite imagery.
Reposted by Ian Foster
RIP Gladys West, mathematician who measured the world to unheard precision (radius to tens of centimeters!), paving the way to GPS.
January 19, 2026 at 6:20 PM
RIP Gladys West, mathematician who measured the world to unheard precision (radius to tens of centimeters!), paving the way to GPS.
Metra train coming
January 18, 2026 at 1:29 AM
Metra train coming
Remaining slides for my class AI Agents for Science are at github.com/agents4scien.... Human-AI workflows, benchmarking and evaluation, failures and safety, and much more. github.com/agents4scien...
January 17, 2026 at 2:24 PM
Remaining slides for my class AI Agents for Science are at github.com/agents4scien.... Human-AI workflows, benchmarking and evaluation, failures and safety, and much more. github.com/agents4scien...
Reposted by Ian Foster
Here's the video of my talk on December 10 at Q2B Silicon Valley, reviewing recent progress in quantum computing.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UoJ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UoJ...
Q2B25 Silicon Valley | John Preskill, Professor, California Institute of Technology
YouTube video by QC Ware
www.youtube.com
January 15, 2026 at 6:14 PM
Here's the video of my talk on December 10 at Q2B Silicon Valley, reviewing recent progress in quantum computing.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UoJ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UoJ...
I asked Claude+Opus4.5 to look at CMIP6 climate data in the Earth System Grid Federation; propose and evaluate some novel hypotheses; and post results on GitHub. See github.com/ianfoster/ES.... I list most of my prompts, so you can see how little guidance was provided.
GitHub - ianfoster/ESGF_LLM_Experiments: Code produced by experiments with LLM access to ESGF
Code produced by experiments with LLM access to ESGF - ianfoster/ESGF_LLM_Experiments
github.com
January 10, 2026 at 6:17 PM
I asked Claude+Opus4.5 to look at CMIP6 climate data in the Earth System Grid Federation; propose and evaluate some novel hypotheses; and post results on GitHub. See github.com/ianfoster/ES.... I list most of my prompts, so you can see how little guidance was provided.
Reposted by Ian Foster
This is my cyclical reminder that there's really only one consistently reliable source of info in the public record that isn't owned by right wing billionaires, who really want to put an end to it.
Please give at least the $2.75 minimum they request if you can.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Please give at least the $2.75 minimum they request if you can.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 17, 2025 at 5:05 AM
This is my cyclical reminder that there's really only one consistently reliable source of info in the public record that isn't owned by right wing billionaires, who really want to put an end to it.
Please give at least the $2.75 minimum they request if you can.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Please give at least the $2.75 minimum they request if you can.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Reposted by Ian Foster
Unbelievable. This would be a terrible blow to American science, writ large. It would decimate not only climate research, but also the kind of weather, wildfire, and disaster research that has underpinned half a century of progress in prediction, early warning, and increased resilience.
Exclusive: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, according to a senior White House official, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado
The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
bit.ly
December 17, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Unbelievable. This would be a terrible blow to American science, writ large. It would decimate not only climate research, but also the kind of weather, wildfire, and disaster research that has underpinned half a century of progress in prediction, early warning, and increased resilience.
Reposted by Ian Foster
Okay gang, The Onion is 80 sign-ups away from our 60,000th print subscriber.
This would put us in contention for the Top 10 most circulated newspapers in the U.S.
So! We're giving our 60,000th subscriber a mystery box by our archivist as a nice lil thank you.
Sign up now. I'd give it an hour.
This would put us in contention for the Top 10 most circulated newspapers in the U.S.
So! We're giving our 60,000th subscriber a mystery box by our archivist as a nice lil thank you.
Sign up now. I'd give it an hour.
Join The Onion
Don’t just read the news. Feel it. Be among the first to feel the news.
membership.theonion.com
December 11, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Okay gang, The Onion is 80 sign-ups away from our 60,000th print subscriber.
This would put us in contention for the Top 10 most circulated newspapers in the U.S.
So! We're giving our 60,000th subscriber a mystery box by our archivist as a nice lil thank you.
Sign up now. I'd give it an hour.
This would put us in contention for the Top 10 most circulated newspapers in the U.S.
So! We're giving our 60,000th subscriber a mystery box by our archivist as a nice lil thank you.
Sign up now. I'd give it an hour.
Reposted by Ian Foster
Get from the Chicago Loop to Hyde Park in 11 minutes with this one weird trick.
December 2, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Get from the Chicago Loop to Hyde Park in 11 minutes with this one weird trick.
Reposted by Ian Foster
“We shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those left behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it.”
— Tom Stoppard.
— Tom Stoppard.
November 29, 2025 at 5:36 PM
“We shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those left behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it.”
— Tom Stoppard.
— Tom Stoppard.
New PNAS paper with the impressive Daniel King, @gagliardilaura.bsky.social and other wonderful co-authors -- www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Cartesian equivariant representations for learning and understanding molecular orbitals | PNAS
Qualitative and quantitative orbital properties such as bonding/antibonding character,
localization, and orbital energies are critical to how chemi...
www.pnas.org
November 21, 2025 at 7:07 PM
New PNAS paper with the impressive Daniel King, @gagliardilaura.bsky.social and other wonderful co-authors -- www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Ian Foster
Opportunity Alert for Faculty in Nigeria
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Faculty Fellows at the University of Chicago: uchicago.infoready4.com#competitionD...
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Faculty Fellows at the University of Chicago: uchicago.infoready4.com#competitionD...
InfoReady
uchicago.infoready4.com
November 17, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Opportunity Alert for Faculty in Nigeria
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Faculty Fellows at the University of Chicago: uchicago.infoready4.com#competitionD...
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Faculty Fellows at the University of Chicago: uchicago.infoready4.com#competitionD...
Reposted by Ian Foster
In the century leading up to 1975, nearly 6000 freighters went down in the Great Lakes.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.
The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.
Why?
It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.
The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.
Why?
It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
November 11, 2025 at 1:50 AM
In the century leading up to 1975, nearly 6000 freighters went down in the Great Lakes.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.
The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.
Why?
It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.
The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.
Why?
It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
Reposted by Ian Foster
Happy "Lights All Askew" Day to all who celebrate! (Headline in the New York Times from Nov. 10, 1919, brings Einstein's theory of gravity, general relativity -- along with its alleged incomprehensibility -- to the public.) 🪐🔭🧠📰 #physics #science #histsci #lightsallaskew
November 10, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Happy "Lights All Askew" Day to all who celebrate! (Headline in the New York Times from Nov. 10, 1919, brings Einstein's theory of gravity, general relativity -- along with its alleged incomprehensibility -- to the public.) 🪐🔭🧠📰 #physics #science #histsci #lightsallaskew
Dropbox informed me today that, at least, "Emojis in filenames are finally here! 🥳" -- what a time to be alive ...
November 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Dropbox informed me today that, at least, "Emojis in filenames are finally here! 🥳" -- what a time to be alive ...
Reposted by Ian Foster
Moon Duchin on the ‘Mathematical Quagmire’ of Gerrymandering
www.nytimes.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Reposted by Ian Foster
AI can accelerate scientific discovery, but only if we get the scientist–AI interaction right.
The dream of “autonomous AI scientists” is tempting:
machines that generate hypotheses, run experiments, and write papers. But science isn’t just automation.
cichicago.substack.com/p/the-mirage...
🧵
The dream of “autonomous AI scientists” is tempting:
machines that generate hypotheses, run experiments, and write papers. But science isn’t just automation.
cichicago.substack.com/p/the-mirage...
🧵
The Mirage of Autonomous AI Scientists
Science as AI’s killer application cannot succeed without scientist-AI interaction: Introducing Hypogenic.ai.
cichicago.substack.com
October 23, 2025 at 6:55 PM
AI can accelerate scientific discovery, but only if we get the scientist–AI interaction right.
The dream of “autonomous AI scientists” is tempting:
machines that generate hypotheses, run experiments, and write papers. But science isn’t just automation.
cichicago.substack.com/p/the-mirage...
🧵
The dream of “autonomous AI scientists” is tempting:
machines that generate hypotheses, run experiments, and write papers. But science isn’t just automation.
cichicago.substack.com/p/the-mirage...
🧵
Reposted by Ian Foster
A terrific AFP fact check uses reverse image searches to expose how a White House video took scenes from Florida, Texas, South Carolina and Nebraska and lied that they showed "Chicago is in chaos."
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
October 16, 2025 at 2:07 PM
A terrific AFP fact check uses reverse image searches to expose how a White House video took scenes from Florida, Texas, South Carolina and Nebraska and lied that they showed "Chicago is in chaos."
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
I guess one king is ok
October 18, 2025 at 9:12 PM
I guess one king is ok
Congratulations to Saman
October 15, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Congratulations to Saman
Fascinating paper by Zhen Zhang & James Evans: arxiv.org/pdf/2509.05591
Analyzing 2M papers published immediately following the training of five prominent open LLMs, we show that ... the most perplexing are disproportionately represented among the most celebrated ... and also the most discounted.
Analyzing 2M papers published immediately following the training of five prominent open LLMs, we show that ... the most perplexing are disproportionately represented among the most celebrated ... and also the most discounted.
arxiv.org
October 13, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Fascinating paper by Zhen Zhang & James Evans: arxiv.org/pdf/2509.05591
Analyzing 2M papers published immediately following the training of five prominent open LLMs, we show that ... the most perplexing are disproportionately represented among the most celebrated ... and also the most discounted.
Analyzing 2M papers published immediately following the training of five prominent open LLMs, we show that ... the most perplexing are disproportionately represented among the most celebrated ... and also the most discounted.