Leading NYU’s charge to make New York a science and tech center ‘second to none’

Juan de Pablo is the guy who figured out how to produce microchips as small as a singular molecule.  His dozens of engineering patents, over 650 publications and scientific inventions are not the only reason he was recruited away from the University of Chicago to New York University to hold joint positions as executive dean of NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering and the University’s inaugural executive vice president for Global Science and Tech. De Pablo’s charisma and organizing skills are crucial to fulfilling the roles that require someone with a professional range that starts at diplomat and ends as mad scientist. 

De Pablo, born in Mexico City, was raised by two research scientists.  He received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He conducted post-doctoral research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He has spent his entire life in academia. He’s been at the University of Wisconsin in Madison followed by 13 years at the University of Chicago where he started the Molecular Engineering Institute.  He joins NYU at a time when the administration is prioritizing making the university the premier institution for global discovery, innovation, and entrepreneurship.  Since 2014, NYU has advanced from 38th on the National Science Foundation’s research and development ranking of American universities to 15th currently (and #1 in New York City). 

In his dual roles he will lead a cross-University effort designed to accelerate the momentum of NYU’s vast science and technology enterprise.  De Pablo has only been in the city a few months and splits his time between his home on the apron of Washington Square Park and his office on the NYU Engineering Campus in Brooklyn.  

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What exactly does an executive vice president for global science and tech do? 

What we're trying to create here is a scientific and technological enterprise that is second to none. I think we need to begin by recognizing that the boundaries between disciplines are very rapidly fading away.  To be able to capitalize on opportunities we need to bring all of the sciences and engineering together. So my job is to get everybody working as one giant university without boundaries, and to recruit the best possible talent to NYU and to New York. So that's what a vice president for science and technology does: bring everybody together around the common vision. A very exciting vision, and then recruit the best to come join us.

It's almost kind of a socialist project in a way – everybody united working together. You juggle several roles and you touch thousands of people. What kind of organizational principles are you applying to structure your departments?

Well, I think the first one is ensure that we have the best talent, that is, recruit the best minds to be part of our science and technology initiative that includes students of faculty staff.  The second element of our strategy is making sure that we have the resources that allow all of these people to thrive. New York really needs to have the best innovation ecosystem in the country. Right now, we don't.  The centers of gravity for science and technology are Silicon Valley, and then, perhaps Boston – Cambridge. But NYU should be first.  So that's the third pillar of  what I'm thinking about. Once we have all of those three pillars working together, we need to make sure that we train the next generation of thinkers and that we continue to attract all that talent to New York for decades to come.  

Universities compete by prestige, and recently NYU was ranked as the number one research institute in terms of funding in New York City. Prestige can be understood as a set of conditions that allow an institution to be placed first in rankings, or recognized by its peers as the best institution in some specific area or as an institution. This concept is kind of vague, and it's difficult to measure performance in an intellectual competition among universities. Do you have a different set of matrix in mind? 

First of all, it is impact. At the end of the day. We really want to make sure that our scientists or engineers produce field-defining discoveries, the discoveries that really changed the way we think and that can happen in medicine, in biology, in chemistry, in engineering, in physics. Imagine new communication systems that are based on quantum networks as opposed to traditional systems. We'll be able to say “yeah, we were the ones who developed the concepts and the principles that enable quantum communications for all of us.” That would be field-defining science at the service of society, of humankind. impact. 

In health care we've recruited a number of people that are just phenomenal, outstanding pioneers in the field of immune system engineering. These are people who are thinking about curing cancer or inflammation or autoimmune diseases by re-engineering your own immune system.  These are field-defining technologies that are going to change the way in which we treat disease. In ten, fifteen, and twenty years they will change society. 

We want to measure our success by being the ones who develop these ideas and deploy them so that they can very quickly reach the public.  The short term is attracting outstanding leaders in all of these disciplines. They will in turn attract more people to come to us. They will publish their work, they will make great discoveries that will bring renown to NYU and to the city. They will start companies that will attract younger talent to work at those companies. They will generate technologies that we will be reading about in the newspapers. Gradually I think, we will see NYU and New York really take the route well deserved, first place, in how we think about science and technology for the country.

It's so exciting to hear that a flotilla of ideas and and scientific leadership is coming to New York. I remember the last time there was this energy back in the late 90’s during the rise of Silicon Alley. 

Yeah, and it's just the beginning. Part of my optimism is also coming from all of the people that I meet in New York that are really vested. New York is such a magnet for talent.  And once you get here you realize that it is even more exciting. People think just living here being surrounded by all of the ideas, all of the energy of the city, makes it a very special place. And I think that's going to be one of our most important recruiting tools.

How did NYU Tandon get a hold of you? What was the biggest carrot that they used to lure you here?

I was very happy at the University of Chicago. I was treated incredibly well. But I was approached by a recruiting firm, and later on by Linda Mills and her team. They gradually, over the course of a long period of time, sold me on their vision for NYU, for science and technology at NYU. I just became convinced that there are very few mega-projects in science and technology with the scope and size of what NYU is planning. And once you understand the opportunity, the magnitude of it and the impact that it’s going to have it is just, very, very difficult to say no to something like that. I think it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I'm planning to squeeze every drop of juice from it.

How have you managed to stay optimistic? You know many people burn out in academia after decades of work. How do you stay on track? How do you balance work and life? What's the secret sauce?

Without a doubt, the students.  The young faculty, the young inventors, the young innovators – they're just inspiring. And what a privilege it is to have a job, when you're my age, where you get to be sitting in a room with young people, all of them smiling, thinking about the great discoveries that they're going to make. It's just phenomenal. They keep you young, they keep you fresh and they keep you optimistic in the face of all of the challenges. So that's the secret sauce: surrounding myself with smarter people that have energy and optimism.

You just had the honor of hosting the 2024 international Conference on AI in finance. What were your takeaways from that conference. And how are you planning on charting the course for AI research at Tandon? 

I think the biggest takeaway and something that I've been thinking about over the course of the last year or two is how quickly AI is changing everything and how quickly the influence of AI is influencing everything we do. But let's understand it first and use it effectively so it enhances everything that we do.  So that's what I'm worried about right now. And my own research right now is in the use of AI for discovery of materials. So I'm, I'm constantly thinking about that.

Do you want to talk more about that?

My research is focused on using sophisticated mathematical algorithms and models of molecules and atoms to design new materials. For example, we've discovered materials that allow you to fabricate microchips at much smaller length scales than currently possible. We have patents on that. The important thing is that those materials were discovered using mathematical models and very advanced computers. More and more we're using AI to help us guide discoveries. What AI can do is identify patterns in materials that we cannot see with our naked eye or with simple models, AI can detect those and guide our thinking. Much of my research is focused on developing those AI algorithms. So we can discover new materials faster, better, more efficiently with our costs. 

How small are the microchips?

Well, currently the smallest of those devices are three nanometers. Just nothing. It's almost the size of an individual molecule. What's amazing is that we can actually fabricate them, produce them consistently without making mistakes. One really interesting thing about New York is that a lot of the instruments, the laboratories that you need to fabricate these devices which are extraordinarily sophisticated and expensive are here. So the state of New York is just a fantastic place to be pursuing this research.

Do you get to share equipment and labs with the other research institutions, or is it really siloed? 

I'll be very frank, I still do not understand very well the equipment-sharing ecosystem in New York.  But that is something that I did well in Illinois. I brought all the universities and laboratories together and that allowed us to do many fantastic things as a team. And here in New York I'm trying to do exactly that. So I have great friends at Cornell at Columbia, Stony Brook, at Brookhaven National Lab in upstate that SUNY New York created. And all of them are working very optimistically together with me, to set up consortia. We will aim to compete together for large initiatives, to attract investments to New York and to do better science together. One of the things that we're trying to do is form a quantum technologies coalition, in which all of these universities present the front together to attract ideas, investments, startups, government funding to be able to compete (on a global level) in that space. 

So now we're at our last question. Picture yourself in 15 to 20 years, looking back at your work at NYU Tandon as you plan to retire. What do you hope you'll be able to say about your legacy?

What would be a great ending for me is to have the whole world talking about NYU and New York as a science and tech destination. We need to be an undisputed destination, the first one that comes to mind for anyone who wants to invest or do science, or get a job or form a partnership.  I want to see built in 15 to 20 years an ecosystem where you have all of the universities working closely together, sharing with joint appointments between different institutions or national labs, fully involved in the life of the universities, and vice versa: companies, funding research, recruiting students, employing students. Also thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem startup companies that continue to renew themselves. And then also having  industry making major bets in our economy, generating jobs, high tech jobs that are truly attractive for people that generate wealth of our thought and wealth economically speaking. I want New York to be the place where some of the great technologies of tomorrow are invented and deployed. That would be just a great way to finish. So, we'll see if we can make that happen.