MIT researchers are set to contribute to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Genesis Mission, with 15 collaborative projects among those selected for funding under Genesis Phase I, DOE announced Wednesday.
The Genesis Mission, a national initiative, intends to build “the world’s most powerful integrated science discovery platform” by incentivizing cross-sector collaborations that leverage AI, supercomputing, quantum systems, and advanced scientific instruments to accelerate breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery, and national security.
“MIT researchers are proud to be leading and contributing to projects under the Genesis Mission, in vital areas of research that support national priorities,” says Ian A. Waitz, MIT’s vice president for research. “The Genesis Mission represents a fantastic opportunity to catalyze the power of universities, industry, and the U.S. national laboratories to advance science, technology, and innovation for the benefit of the nation and the world.”
The DOE announced the initial projects during its Genesis Summit in Washington on Wednesday. The research funding to MIT is pending completion of negotiations toward an award agreement for each project. In phase I, funded project teams will work to demonstrate research workflows that integrate AI with scientific investigation, and to rigorously evaluate the scientific merit of their approach.
Projects under the Genesis Mission are collaborative by design; teams must draw on the expertise of researchers from academia, industry, and/or the national laboratories. Among the selected phase I projects with MIT involvement are those that aim to develop powerful quantum sensors to help explain fundamental questions about the universe; advance knowledge of chemical-free methods to extract rare earth elements; model the behavior of plasma in fusion tokamaks and future fusion reactors; develop digital twins for fusion magnet systems; exploit the self-assembly of biomolecules to design materials with targeted properties; generatively design rotating blades for machinery systems; and more. Phase I projects that identify promising pathways toward transformative capabilities at scale may be considered by DOE for further Genesis Mission funding.
Six of the selected projects are to be led by MIT principal investigators (PIs):
- AI-Driven Discovery of Electrochemical Separation Methods for Rare Earth ElementsMIT lead: Martin Bazant (Department of Chemical Engineering, ChemE), Chevron Professor in Chemical Engineering and professor of mathematics
- AI for Learning Missing Constitutive Structure in Fracture ModelsMIT lead: Laurent Demanet (Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences), professor of applied mathematics in the Department of Mathematics and co-director of the MIT Center for Computational Science and Engineering
- AI-Driven Quantum Sensing for Precision Tests of Fundamental PhysicsMIT lead: Ronald Garcia Ruiz (Laboratory for Nuclear Science, LNS), associate professor of physics and Thomas A. Frank (1977) Career Development Professor
- Multi-Agent Inverse Design of Block Polypeptoids Into Hierarchical NanostructuresMIT lead: Bradley Olsen (ChemE), Alexander and I. Michael Kasser (1960) Professor
- CATALYST: Core Accelerated Trajectories with Augmented Learning bY Sim-to-experiment TransferMIT lead: Cristina Rea (Plasma Science and Fusion Center), principal research scientist and division head for data science
- Multi-Modal and Multi-Facility Application of the FM4NPP Foundation Model: Silicon Trackers and Electron CollidersMIT lead: Gunther Roland (LNS), professor of physics and division head for experimental nuclear and particle physics
MIT researchers are expected to participate in another nine selected projects led by other institutions, companies, and labs:
- Framework for Optimized Rotating Blade Design Using Generative Engineering (FORGE)Project lead: GE Vernova Advanced Research CenterMIT lead: Faez Ahmed (Department of Mechanical Engineering), associate professor of mechanical engineering and the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Professor
- Superconducting Polychronous Computation Near CriticalityProject lead: Argonne National LaboratoryMIT lead: Karl Berggren (Research Laboratory of Electronics), the Julius A. Stratton Professor in Electrical Engineering and Physics
- Scalable Agentic Digital Twins for Autonomous Precision FacilitiesProject lead: Texas A&M UniversityMIT lead: Ronald Garcia Ruiz (LNS)
- Agentic AI for Real-Time Expedited Discovery from High-Complexity EIC Data StreamsProject lead: Purdue UniversityMIT lead: Philip Harris (LNS), associate professor of physics
- Self-Driving Discovery and Co-Design of MXene Memristors for 3D Compute-in-Memory SystemsProject lead: Northeastern UniversityMIT lead: Ju Li (Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, NSE), the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor in Power Engineering and professor of materials science and engineering
- A-WILD: AI-driven Workflows for Intelligent Lab DiscoveryProject lead: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)MIT lead: Ju Li (NSE)
- A Foundational Generative AI Framework to Advance Water-Energy SecurityProject lead: LBNLMIT lead: Haruko Wainwright (NSE), Atlantic Richfield Career Development Professor in Energy Studies, assistant professor of nuclear science and engineering, and assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering
- An AI-Driven Platform for HLW Repository Design and Analysis with Digital Twins, GIS Data Integration, and Surrogate ModelsProject lead: LBNLMIT lead: Haruko Wainwright (NSE)
- Toward Physics-Informed Digital Twins for Fusion Magnet SystemsProject lead: LBNLMIT lead: Holger Witte (LNS), associate director of MIT’s Bates Research and Engineering Center.
“The extraordinary response to this Genesis Mission application process demonstrates that America’s scientific community is ready to reimagine how discovery happens,” said DOE Under Secretary Darío Gil SM ’00 PhD ’03, in the DOE’s announcement. “Through the Genesis Mission, we are bringing together the nation’s leading researchers, institutions, and technology partners to build the next generation of scientific capability. We look forward to seeing these teams demonstrate new research workflows that accelerate discovery and reveal what is possible when AI and science advance together.”
A complete list of the first Genesis Mission projects selected for award negotiations is available from the U.S. Department of Energy.
