Department of Energy selects 5 U of A research projects through new AI-for-science ‘Genesis Mission’ awards
Five University of Arizona projects have secured funding through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, a national initiative aimed at applying artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery in support of energy, national security and other critical national priorities.
Spanning quantum science, Earth systems, computational biology and trustworthy AI, the U of A awards are among 278 awards, 168 led by universities, announced for the initiative’s inaugural round July 22 in Washington, D.C. The selected projects represent 342 participating institutions, which include national laboratories, universities, companies and nonprofit organizations.
“These awards are a direct result of the intentional work of our faculty and staff who have been building AI into the fabric of how this university operates across research, teaching and learning, and operations,” said President Suresh Garimella. “At the University of Arizona, we have aligned our long-standing strengths with national priorities to enhance the impact of our research. We are confident that AI will advance our ability to move faster from breakthrough to benefit, and that is what awards like these make possible.”
The Genesis Mission is designed to build the world’s most powerful integrated science discovery platform, bringing together government, industry, academia and philanthropic partners to address some of the nation’s most pressing challenges in energy, science and engineering. The platform combines artificial intelligence, supercomputing, quantum systems and advanced scientific discovery and national security. The selected teams will build and demonstrate novel AI-enabled scientific workflows and assess whether they lead to faster discoveries, sharper predictions, better experiments or new scientific insights to create real-world impact.
The U of A is one of only four universities nationwide to receive such a high number of prime awards (U of A as the lead organization) Genesis Mission awards in the competition. Only three universities received more, placing the U of A in the top 4% of universities receiving Genesis awards. Across all award recipients – including DOE national laboratories, which received 87 awards – it tied for 11th nationally in total awards.
“These projects reflect the University of Arizona’s deliberate investment in bringing artificial intelligence together with world-class scientific expertise to accelerate discovery,” said Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, senior vice president for research and partnerships. “Having one of higher education’s few dedicated chief AI officers has helped us build the partnerships, infrastructure and culture needed to integrate AI across disciplines – from quantum and cybersecurity to environmental and biological research. These awards and our innovative track record of AI expertise and AI-enabled innovation reflect that vision and reinforce our role among the nation’s leading research universities.”
The U of A Genesis Mission projects span a wide range of scientific disciplines.
Marwan Krunz, Regents Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will develop physics-informed AI tools that make AI-enabled scientific workflows more secure and resilient against cyberattacks, strengthening applications ranging from fusion energy to power grids and climate science. The project includes Loukas Lazos, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and partners from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Scott Saleska, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and director of the Center for Biosphere 2, will use AI to improve predictions of how water, minerals, plants and microbes interact beneath Earth’s surface, helping scientists better understand and manage energy-sensitive landscapes. The project will leverage Biosphere 2’s Landscape Evolution Observatory to test the models and use AI to rapidly adapt them to new environments. Additional investigators include U of A researchers Siya Shao, Jon Chorover, Bo Guo, Katrina Dontsova and researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Pooja Siwach, assistant professor of physics, will create an AI framework that automatically identifies the most efficient classical, quantum or hybrid computing approach for solving complex nuclear physics problems, accelerating quantum research with applications in science and national security. Siwach will work with co-investigator Chicheng Zhang, assistant professor of computer science and collaborators from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Travis Wheeler, associate professor in the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, will use AI to predict how proteins move and function, dramatically reducing the time required to model enzyme behavior and enabling faster advances in bioenergy, agriculture and environmental science. The project includes Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
In addition, Laura Condon, professor of hydrology and atmospheric sciences, is partnering with Argonne National Laboratory’s Eugene Yan, department head, environmental science, on the laboratory-led project, “Multi-Fidelity AI Foundation Model for Coupled Surface-Groundwater Predictions of Water Availability and Flood Hazards Across CONUS.”
“We’re entering a new era in which AI is becoming an indispensable partner in scientific discovery,” said David Ebert, who joined the U of A in 2025 as its first chief AI officer. “Whether identifying new quantum computing strategies, predicting the behavior of complex biological systems or improving environmental models, these projects show how AI can enable researchers to ask bigger questions, solve harder problems and reach answers faster. That’s the kind of interdisciplinary innovation the University of Arizona was built to enable, and we have been engaging in for years. AI-enabled science doesn’t replace scientists; it empowers them to be more effective and will rapidly increase the rate of scientific discovery.”
