MIT projects selected for funding under US Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission

<p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-0d252223-7fff-b707-9023-94f484791bd3">MIT researchers are set to contribute to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) <a href="https://www.energy.gov/undersecretaryforscience/genesis-mission/genesis-mission">Genesis Mission</a>, with 15 collaborative projects among those selected for funding under Genesis Phase I, DOE <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-energy-chris-wright-announces-first-genesis-mission-projects-selected-accelerate">announced</a> Wednesday.</p><p dir="ltr">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.</p><p dir="ltr">“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.”</p><p dir="ltr">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.</p><p dir="ltr">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.</p><p dir="ltr">Six of the selected projects are to be led by MIT principal investigators (PIs):</p><ul><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" data-list-item-id="ef133d89a4684068957ee763f6cb2078e">AI-Driven Discovery of Electrochemical Separation Methods for Rare Earth Elements<br><strong>MIT lead: Martin Bazant</strong> (Department of Chemical Engineering, ChemE), Chevron Professor in Chemical Engineering and professor of mathematics<br> </li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" data-list-item-id="ed2392fd10f9366971bbea0195a07134b">AI for Learning Missing Constitutive Structure in Fracture Models<br><strong>MIT lead: Laurent Demanet </strong>(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<br> </li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" data-list-item-id="e4adc46418224d67570b9fd93c25effbd">AI-Driven Quantum Sensing for Precision Tests of Fundamental Physics<br><strong>MIT lead: Ronald Garcia Ruiz</strong> (Laboratory for Nuclear Science, LNS), associate professor of physics and Thomas A. Frank (1977) Career Development Professor<br> </li><li dir="ltr" aria-level="1" data-list-item-id="e3e6d76091a8e9fc290bbb775d3891a2c">Multi-Agent Inverse Design of Block Polypeptoids Into Hierarchical Nanostructures<br><strong>MIT lead: Bradley Olsen</stro