Accelerating science with AI: Surfing the frontier between the bitter lesson and no free lunch
About this Event
2501 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR 97331
https://physics.oregonstate.edu/impact/2026/09/how-can-ai-accelerate-discovery-while-keeping-scientists-at-the-center-scott-clark #AIScott Clark, Ph.D.
Co-founder and CEO, Distributional
Co-founder and former CEO, SigOpt
Former Intel VP and GM of AI and High-Performance Computing Supercomputing
The bitter lesson says scale beats cleverness; the no-free-lunch theorem says no method wins unless its assumptions fit the problem. Both are right. And where they meet is where research lives: beyond what any AI model has been trained on.
Drawing on his experience building AI tools through his startups, Clark explores how AI can take on the mechanical middle of research — running experiments, debugging code and other computational work — freeing scientists to focus on novel problems at the frontier. He’ll connect that shift to physics, materials discovery, energy and physical AI.
A fourth-generation Beaver, Clark ('08) earned three bachelor’s degrees from Oregon State in mathematics, physics and computational physics.