Emory scientists selected for U.S. Genesis Mission awards to speed discovery through AI
July 22, 2026 Carol Clark
Emory physicists are using AI to advance understanding of the fluid dynamics of plasma, including unusual structures in deep space caused by remnants of a star’s supernova explosion, such as the Crab Nebula, above. Photo credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)
Emory physicists Justin Burton and Ilya Nemenman will lead a team using artificial intelligence to advance understanding of the fluid dynamics of plasma — from the lab to the cosmos — through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission: Transforming Science and Energy with AI.
Emory computational biologist Yana Bromberg will serve as a co-investigator on another Genesis Mission project led by Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station to develop AI tools for biomining of critical minerals.
The Genesis Mission is a historic national initiative led by the Department of Energy (DOE), which is building the world’s most powerful integrated science discovery platform. By uniting government, industry, academia and philanthropy, it is accelerating breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery and national security through a new platform that combines AI, supercomputing, quantum systems and advanced scientific instruments.
The Emory researchers’ work has been selected by the DOE for a phase-one request-for-application (RFA) award from the Genesis Mission program. The phase-one RFA awards, announced July 22 during the inaugural Genesis Mission Summit in Washington, D.C., include nearly 300 projects spanning all 50 states.
The Genesis Mission RFA generated the largest response to a funding opportunity in DOE history. Following a rigorous merit review process, the selected projects represent:
- 278 awards: 87 led by DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) National Laboratories, 168 led by universities, 19 led by companies, and 4 led by nonprofit organizations.
- 342 participating institutions: 16 DOE and NNSA National Laboratories, 142 universities, 157 companies, 13 nonprofit organizations, and 14 other institutions.
The summit brought together representatives of teams selected as phase-one RFA awardees, heads of U.S. government agencies, members of Congress and leaders of science and industry from across the nation to celebrate the Genesis Mission’s scope and ambition.
The Emory scientists’ research aligns with the university’s AI.Humanity initiative, launched in 2022 to advance the responsible development of artificial intelligence and ensure it serves humanity, says Provost Badia Ahad, executive vice president for academic affairs.
“Emory is honored to partner with the U.S. Department of Energy in applying AI to some of our nation's most complex scientific challenges,” Ahad says. “Justin Burton and Ilya Nemenman's groundbreaking research demonstrates the extraordinary potential of AI to deepen our understanding of the natural world by uncovering new physical laws and scientific insights that might otherwise remain hidden. And Yana Bromberg is a pioneer in applying machine learning for metagenomic analysis.
“This recognition reflects the caliber of scholarship at Emory, and we are excited to see what they accomplish during the first phase of the Genesis Mission.”
Exploring the power of plasma
Plasma — the superheated, ionized gas lighting up stars — is the most abundant form of matter in the universe and yet its behaviors and properties are not well understood.
Scientists across disciplines are studying plasma, due to its importance in areas such as the production of computer chips, development of next-generation rocket propulsion and the quest for fusion, a potentially limitless source of energy.
Burton and Nemenman recently developed an AI method that uncovered new physics in a laboratory system of dusty plasma. That research won the 2025 Cozzarelli Prize from the National Academy of Sciences, given annually to one paper in the mathematical and physical sciences for outstanding scientific excellence and originality.
“We are now building on that work,” says Burton, Winship Distinguished Research Professor of physics. “We want to devise an AI tool capable of analyzing plasma dynamics across scale, from a 2,000-particle system in a lab to the vast complexity of astrophysical plasma as it experiences shockwaves from phenomena such as supernovas and gamma ray bursts.”
“The ultimate goal is to find an equivalent of the ideal gas law to describe systems of larger complexity,” says Nemenman, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Physics. “In addition to improving fundamental knowledge of nature, this work holds many potential practical applications across industry and science.”
This Emory-led team will include Anatoly Spitkovsky, an astrophysicist at Princeton University; and Ammar Hakim, principal research physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a DOE national laboratory focused on accelerating the development of fusion energy.
Building AI tools to find critical minerals in mine waste
Bromberg, an Emory professor of biology and computer science, will serve as a co-investigator on another Genesis Mission project, to develop AI tools for biomining of critical minerals.
She will lead the development of an AI-powered predictive framework for the biomining project, headed by Kung-Hui Chu, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station.
“Our vision is to advance U.S. energy and technology security by establishing a sustainable domestic supply of critical minerals through AI-guided biomining of mine waste, minimizing environmental impact and reliance on foreign imports,” Bromberg says.
The Genesis Mission project will build on the expertise of her lab to integrate microbial, hydrogeologic and geochemical data into AI tools for targeted biomining of rare earth elements.
“Our tools will be applicable to hundreds of acid mine drainage sites, enabling their transformation from an environmental liability into a scalable, domestic resource for critical minerals,” Bromberg says.
Harnessing AI for scientific breakthroughs
The goal of the phase one RFA awards is to identify promising pathways toward transformative scientific capabilities and establish a foundation for future investment and scale. Project teams will design and demonstrate research workflows that integrate AI with scientific investigation, while rigorously evaluating whether those approaches can accelerate discovery, improve predictive capabilities, enhance experimentation or generate new scientific insights.
Awardees will gain access to the Genesis Mission Platform, including AI agent frameworks, advanced AI models and software made available through industry partners, and high-performance computing resources across DOE’s National Laboratories and partner facilities. Together, these capabilities will enable researchers to rapidly design, test and refine new approaches.
The mission of the DOE is to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions. Learn more at energy.gov.
