UKC 2026 Plenary Speakers
The UKC Plenary Sessions bring together globally recognized leaders in science, technology, and innovation. Over the years, the plenary stage has hosted Nobel laureates, renowned researchers, and industry pioneers who continue to shape the future of discovery and innovation.
Day 1 Plenary
Day 2 Plenary
Day 3 Plenary
Nobel Laureate in Physics
NIST Fellow and Distinguished University Professor
Dr. William D. Phillips is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and NIST Fellow at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), as well as a Distinguished University Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland. He was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms using laser light, a breakthrough that transformed modern atomic physics and quantum science.
Dr. Phillips founded NIST’s Laser Cooling and Trapping Group and pioneered techniques that have become fundamental to cold-atom research worldwide. His work has contributed to advances in quantum technologies, precision measurement, and atomic clocks, which serve as the foundation of global timekeeping systems.
Through his scientific discoveries, education, and public engagement, Dr. Phillips continues to inspire new generations of scientists while advancing the frontiers of quantum physics.
Talk Title: “A New Measure: the Quantum Reform of the Modern Metric System”
ABSTRACT: The metric system, officially the “International System of Units”, has its roots in the French revolution. Today we have experienced the greatest revolution in measurement since the French revolution. The quantum nature of sub-microscopic atomic matter now provides new definitions of the kilogram, ampere, kelvin, and mole. These quantities are defined by fixing values for the most fundamental quantum constant, Planck’s constant; the quantum of electric charge; Boltzmann’s constant; and Avogadro’s number. I will explain how this is possible, why it was necessary, and speculate about future changes in the SI that may take advantage of features of the Second Quantum Revolution.
Founder and NVIDIA Fellow
NVIDIA
Renowned computer engineer and entrepreneur Chris A. Malachowsky, co-founder of NVIDIA and a distinguished engineer, has played a pivotal role in shaping modern computing through the development of GPU architectures and accelerated computing technologies. His work has been instrumental in advancing high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and graphics processing across industries ranging from scientific research to autonomous systems. As a leader in both industry innovation and technology strategy, Malachowsky continues to influence the future of AI-driven computing and scalable system design.
Former President, American Statistical Association
Professor, University of Florida
Dr. Ji-Hyun Lee is a cancer biostatistician whose research focuses on clinical trials, cancer prevention and treatment, immunotherapy, artificial intelligence, and the analysis of large-scale health data. She has authored more than 210 peer-reviewed publications and provides statistical leadership for numerous federally funded
cancer research projects.
In 2025, Dr. Lee served as the 120th President of the American Statistical Association, becoming the first Korean-American and first East Asian to hold the position in the organization's history. She also established the first Statistical Advisory Panel at Nature Medicine to strengthen methodological rigor and reproducibility in biomedical research.
Through her research, leadership, and mentoring, Dr. Lee advances the role of statistics and data science in improving human health and supporting evidence-based decision making.
Talk Title: “Food, Medicine, and Belief: Scientific Evidence in the Age of Uncertainty”
ABSTRACT: As a biostatistician working in cancer research, I have spent much of my career studying how evidence shapes medical decisions when the stakes are high. In this talk, I will share examples from my own research to illustrate how modern science navigates uncertainty, belief, hope, and rapidly evolving data. I will discuss a randomized clinical trial evaluating neutropenic diets in patients with blood cancer, observational studies examining ivermectin and cancer outcomes using large-scale electronic health records, and ongoing work on mRNA-based cancer vaccines and immunotherapy. I will also reflect on how data science, AI, and large-scale health data are creating new opportunities (and new challenges) for generating and interpreting medical evidence. As scientific information becomes easier to produce, questions about causation, uncertainty, and human judgment may become even more important. Ultimately, the goal of science is not simply to generate more data, but to help people understand what the evidence truly shows.