Krunz, Lazos win DOE Genesis Mission award for AI research tools
Marwan Krunz, Regents Professor in the School of Electrical, Computing, and Software Engineering, and professor Loukas Lazos are developing secure AI workflow tools for applications like the power grid.
Marwan Krunz, Regents Professor in the School of Electrical, Computing, and Software Engineering, and professor Loukas Lazos earned a Genesis Mission research award from the U.S. Department of Energy. The Genesis initiative funds academic and industry researchers developing artificial intelligence tools for energy dominance, scientific discovery and national security.
With this research award, Krunz, Lazos and partners from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will create 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.
"We're entering a new era in which AI is becoming an indispensable partner in scientific discovery," said David Ebert, who joined the University of Arizona in 2025 as its first chief AI officer. "AI-enabled science doesn't replace scientists; it empowers them to be more effective and will rapidly increase the rate of scientific discovery."
The U of A won a total of five Department of Energy Genesis Mission awards.