The Department of Energy announced today the list of projects that will receive funding through the Genesis Mission: Transforming Science and Energy with AI. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory was selected for a portfolio of initiatives, including the AI/ML project led by Fermilab and eight others in which the lab is a key collaborator. These awards position Fermilab as a strong contributor to the Genesis Mission and demonstrate the lab’s leadership in applying artificial intelligence and advanced technologies to accelerate scientific discovery.
“Fermilab is honored to receive this support for advancing artificial intelligence as part of DOE’s Genesis Mission. This investment strengthens our ability to accelerate scientific discovery, develop next‑generation technologies, and drive innovation at the frontiers of particle physics and advanced technology,” Fermilab Director Norbert Holtkamp said. “We are proud to contribute our expertise to a mission that will help shape the next era of U.S. leadership in science and technology.”
The Fermilab-led project will develop AI/ML-based resonance control algorithms to enable high-reliability, low-cost accelerator operations that will substantially improve the performance of particle accelerators that drive discovery science. Several partner institutions, including national labs, universities and industry partner xLight Inc., are contributing to this project.
The Genesis Mission is a historic national initiative led by the U.S. Department of Energy, 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 projects named today will receive funding through a Request For Applications (RFA) that was announced by DOE in March. The goal of the Phase I RFA awards is to identify promising pathways toward transformative scientific capabilities and establish a foundation for future investment and scale. Fermilab 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.
Fermilab participated in today’s Genesis Mission Summit as a recipient of a first‑round Genesis Mission award, underscoring its leadership in advanced accelerator technologies as the Department of Energy announced the selected projects.
The AI/ML algorithms that will emerge from the Fermilab-led project will increase science reach, improve stability for users, increase radio-frequency amplifier lifetime and reduce operating costs. Superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities are electromagnetic resonators that transfer energy to beams in particle accelerators. Because they are extremely efficient resonators, they can be disturbed by small vibrations and pressure fluctuations. For current and future SRF-based accelerators like Fermilab’s Proton Improvement Plan-II (PIP-II) linear accelerator, SLAC National Laboratory’s Linac Coherent Light Source-SC, Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), Michigan State University’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, Argonne National Laboratory’s Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System, and industrial accelerators, it is vitally important to have precise control of the cavity resonant frequency.
“These awards recognize the tremendous opportunity to combine artificial intelligence with Fermilab’s world-leading expertise in superconducting accelerator technology,” said Anna Grassellino, chief technology officer and associate laboratory director for the Technology Directorate at Fermilab. “By developing AI-driven control of superconducting RF cavities, we can make future accelerators — such as our own PIP-II — more efficient, reliable, and autonomous, enabling higher scientific performance while reducing operational complexity. This is an important step toward a new generation of intelligent accelerator facilities that will power discoveries across particle physics and many other fields of science.”
Fermilab will contribute as a key collaborator on several other projects aligned with core research areas of the lab such as neutrino and collider physics, the muon-to-electron-conversion experiment (Mu2e), precision frontier, the Electron-Ion Collider and advanced scientific computing. The following projects were selected for funding through the Genesis Mission:
- How AI will expedite discovery in highly complex electron-ion collider data streams
Lead institution: Purdue University - Using an AI-driven approach to detect anomalies in the CMS Level-1 Scouting System
Lead institution: University of Colorado - Standardizing and advancing high-performance computing workloads using AI
Lead institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison - Using agentic workflows for the expedited search and discovery of charged lepton flavor violation in Mu2e
Lead institution: University of South Carolina - Deployment of advanced AI accelerated systems to detect, identify, classify and communicate supernova events in real time for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE)
Lead institution: Duke University - The use of AI agents for high-energy physics simulations and analysis operations
Lead institution: University of Alabama - Accelerating DUNE physics with AI to discover neutrino interaction uncertainties
Lead institution: Florida State University - Physics-driven digital twins simulations for fusion magnet systems
Lead institution: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Fermilab is an international leader in particle accelerator science research, which generates massive streams of data for scientific discovery using accelerator and detector technologies. The lab’s high-energy physics research creates unique opportunities for AI innovations. That is why researchers are developing and implementing AI tools to improve the precision of measurements, optimizing operations and accelerating discovery.
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is America’s national laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. Fermi Forward Discovery Group manages Fermilab for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Visit Fermilab’s website at www.fnal.gov and follow us on social media.
Facts Only
* Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory was selected for funding through the Genesis Mission.
* The selection includes an AI/ML project led by Fermilab and eight other collaborations.
* The Fermilab-led project will develop AI/ML-based resonance control algorithms for high-reliability, low-cost accelerator operations.
* This work aims to substantially improve the performance of particle accelerators that drive discovery science.
* Partner institutions contributing to the project include national labs, universities, and xLight Inc.
* The Genesis Mission is a DOE initiative building an integrated science discovery platform combining AI, supercomputing, quantum systems, and advanced instruments.
* Phase I RFA awards seek to identify pathways for transformative scientific capabilities by integrating AI with scientific investigation to accelerate discovery or improve experimental outcomes.
* The resulting AI/ML algorithms are expected to increase science reach, improve stability for users, increase radio-frequency amplifier lifetime, and reduce operating costs.
* This technology applies to Superconducting Radio-Frequency (SRF) cavities in particle accelerators, where precise frequency control is important.
* Fermilab will contribute as a key collaborator on other projects related to neutrino physics, the Mu2e experiment, and the Electron-Ion Collider.
Executive Summary
The Department of Energy announced funding for projects through the Genesis Mission: Transforming Science and Energy with AI. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory was selected for a portfolio of initiatives, including an AI/ML project led by Fermilab and eight other collaborations. The Fermilab-led project aims to develop AI/ML-based resonance control algorithms to achieve high-reliability, low-cost accelerator operations, which will improve the performance of particle accelerators. This effort involves contributions from partner institutions, including national labs, universities, and xLight Inc.
The Genesis Mission is a national initiative led by the DOE focused on building an integrated science discovery platform by uniting government, industry, academia, and philanthropy to accelerate breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery, and national security using AI, supercomputing, quantum systems, and advanced instruments. The Phase I Request For Applications (RFA) aims to identify pathways toward transformative scientific capabilities by having project teams design research workflows integrating AI with scientific investigation, evaluating how these approaches can accelerate discovery or improve predictive capabilities.
The resulting AI/ML algorithms are expected to increase science reach, improve user stability, extend radio-frequency amplifier lifetime, and reduce operating costs. This is crucial for systems like Superconducting Radio-Frequency (SRF) cavities used in accelerators, where precise control of resonant frequency is vital for maintaining the performance of facilities such as Fermilab’s PIP-II and other major accelerator systems.
Full Take
The narrative positions AI not as an abstract tool but as a direct mechanism for optimizing the physical constraints of frontier science—specifically accelerator technology. The core implication is that efficiency and reliability in particle physics discovery are gated by technological limitations in managing complex systems like superconducting magnets and RF cavities. By framing the solution as "AI-driven control," the narrative shifts the focus from incremental engineering improvements to a paradigm shift in how large-scale scientific infrastructure operates.
The selection of Fermilab highlights a pattern where leadership in foundational physics (particle accelerators) is leveraged to drive innovation in emerging computational fields (AI/ML). The inclusion of numerous partner institutions in related projects, such as those focusing on electron-ion colliders and neutrino experiments, suggests that the momentum behind the Genesis Mission seeks systemic integration rather than isolated technological gains.
The request for RFA results emphasizes a focus on *process*—designing research workflows that integrate AI—suggesting an awareness that the application of AI must be grounded in verifiable scientific enhancement (accelerating discovery, improving prediction). The challenge lies in ensuring that the pursuit of autonomous or highly efficient accelerator control does not create systemic risks regarding accessibility or the necessary distributed expertise. What is missing is a framework for governing the ethical and equitable deployment of these powerful optimization tools across diverse scientific disciplines.
Sentinel — Human
The text reads as a synthesis of official announcements layered with expert commentary, exhibiting high contextual integration rather than pure synthetic pattern generation.