More than $1.62 will support collaborations with Brookhaven National Lab and other institutions to address complex science and technology challenges
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 22, 2026 – Researchers at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook University) secured six inaugural awards through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Genesis Mission, a national AI-for-science initiative designed to accelerate scientific discovery and strengthen U.S. leadership in innovation, energy and national security. The awards reinforce Stony Brook University’s growing leadership in artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, engineering, physics and advanced computing, and bring more than $1.62 million in combined project funding to address complex scientific and engineering challenges.
Three projects are led by Stony Brook’s Jan C. Bernauer, Emre Salman and Shikui Chen and will bring nearly $1.44 million directly to Stony Brook and support collaborations with Brookhaven National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Indiana University and GE Vernova.
Additionally, Nengkun Yu, a professor in Stony Brook’s Department of Computer Science, received a subaward for an AI-enabled computational physics project led by Johns Hopkins University. Anatoly Frenkel, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, also received a subaward through Brookhaven National Laboratory for a project using AI to analyze changes in molten salt chemistry. Daniel Knopf, a professor in the School of Atmospheric and Marine Sciences at Stony Brook, will be collaborating with Brookhaven National Lab on the Genesis Mission project titled: “An Automated, Multimodal-AI-Enabled Cloud Chamber for Constraining Cloud Microphysical Processes in Earth System Models.”
The awards were announced today, July 22, at the Genesis Mission Summit at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C., where
leaders from the U.S. Department of Energy, Congress, national laboratories, universities and industry gathered to launch the national initiative. Hendrik Hamann, Chief AI Scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory for Innovation, Science, and Security and professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, was one of five people who delivered Genesis Mission technical keynotes at the summit, on “How AI Is Transforming the Electrical Grid.”
The Genesis Mission is a national initiative bringing together DOE national laboratories, universities, industry and other partners to accelerate breakthroughs in energy, discovery science and national security. The initiative seeks to connect advanced computing systems, experimental facilities, AI capabilities and scientific datasets to address 21 national science and technology challenges.
The awards follow a coordinated university-wide effort that produced 89 Stony Brook submissions, including 40 university-led proposals and 49 proposals on which Stony Brook participated as a collaborating institution. Stony Brook-led submissions spanned 16 research areas and drew upon the university’s strengths in artificial intelligence, advanced computing, physics, microelectronics, energy systems, materials science and interdisciplinary research. Stony Brook was among just 278 awardees selected from more than 5,000 applications.“
The State University of New York at Stony Brook’s selection for multiple Genesis Mission awards validates our position as a national leader in expanding the scope, scale and impact of research in science and engineering by leveraging the powerful tool of AI,” said Stony Brook University President Andrea Goldsmith. “In response to an ambitious national challenge with a very tight response time, our faculty and research partners came together to develop bold, creative, interdisciplinary ideas that advance AI-driven scientific discovery. These awards reflect not only the depth and breadth of Stony Brook’s expertise and our strong partnerships with Brookhaven National Laboratory, industry and other institutions but also our commitment to preparing the next generation of scientists, engineers, and innovators. By rapidly advancing the frontiers of knowledge across scientific disciplines through the use of AI, the work to be undertaken through these awards will create new opportunities for our faculty and students while also strengthening American innovation, economic competitiveness and national security.”
The five projects are:
“What makes these awards so significant is how clearly they showcase Stony Brook’s multidisciplinary leadership in artificial intelligence,” said Mónica Bugallo, interim vice president for research and innovation at Stony Brook University. “Our faculty are applying AI to challenges of national importance across an incredible range of disciplines, from modernizing microelectronics and power networks to decoding cosmic physics and pioneering neuro-symbolic models for high-energy physics. Their work positions Stony Brook to drive the next era of AI innovation and advance U.S. leadership in science, technology and national security.”
The three Stony Brook-led projects apply artificial intelligence to nuclear physics, radiation-tolerant microelectronics and next-generation power technologies. The principal investigators described how their research could accelerate AI-enabled scientific discovery and innovation:
“With this award, our team will develop AI foundation models that learn directly from raw detector signals and can be adapted across different experiments and detector technologies,” said Jan C. Bernauer. “By combining expertise and data from Stony Brook, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, we aim to improve the precision of particle tracking while building tools that are more flexible, efficient and broadly reusable. This could fundamentally change how data are analyzed at current and future nuclear physics facilities.”
“We are honored to receive this award and to collaborate with GE Vernova Advanced Research and Sandia National Laboratories on this important initiative,” said Shikui Chen. “This project will combine geometry-informed artificial intelligence with advanced multiphysics modeling to dramatically accelerate the design of next-generation power modules. We hope the research will lead to more efficient, reliable and manufacturable power electronics that strengthen future energy and communication systems.”
“This project seeks to develop a new AI-enabled approach for making detector readout electronics more resilient by combining radiation characterization with intelligent, real-time fault detection and recovery,” said Emre Salman. “This award will enable our multidisciplinary team to establish the experimental and technological foundation for a new generation of reliable, autonomous microelectronics that can support future DOE scientific missions and other harsh-environment applications.”
Strengthening National Research Leadership
The DOE’s Genesis Mission awards reinforce Stony Brook’s growing leadership in artificial intelligence and quantum technologies while expanding collaborations across the Department of Energy national laboratory system, academia and industry. Together, these partnerships position the university to accelerate scientific discovery and pursue future research opportunities at national scale.
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About the State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook University)
The State University of New York at Stony Brook is New York’s flagship university and No. 1 public university. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. With more than 27,000 students, more than 3,000 faculty members, more than 237,000 alumni, a premier academic healthcare system and 18 NCAA Division I athletic programs, Stony Brook is a research-intensive distinguished center of innovation dedicated to addressing the world’s biggest challenges. The university embraces its mission to provide comprehensive undergraduate, graduate and professional education of the highest quality, and is ranked as the #59 overall university and #26 among public universities in the nation by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges listing. Fostering a commitment to academic research and intellectual endeavors, Stony Brook’s membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU) places it among the top 71 research institutions in North America. The university’s distinguished faculty have earned esteemed awards such as the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Indianapolis Prize for animal conservation, Abel Prize, Fields Medal, Breakthrough prizes in mathematics and physics, and MacArthur Fellows Genius Grants. Stony Brook has the responsibility of co-managing Brookhaven National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy — one of only eight universities with a role in running a national laboratory. In 2023, Stony Brook was named the anchor institution for The New York Climate Exchange on Governors Island in New York City. Providing economic growth for neighboring communities and the wider geographic region, the university totals an impressive $8.93 billion in increased economic output on Long Island. Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/
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