U.S. Department of Energy invests in Fermilab projects to accelerate AI-enabled scientific discovery. The awards will support Fermilab projects by leveraging AI to boost innovation and technology development, advance DOE's Genesis Mission and accelerate scientific discovery. Media contact. * Tracy Marc, Fermilab [email protected], 224-290-7803 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.

Fermilab marks 70 years of neutrino science and leads next-generation experiment. As Fermilab commemorates 70 years since the discovery of the neutrino at the Savannah River Site in the United States, the lab also celebrates its multiple generations of pioneering neutrino research. Today, Fermilab is building the next era of neutrino discovery through the development of the world-leading Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. For 70 years, physicists around the world have designed elaborate detectors and experiments to study a mysterious particle called the neutrino, with the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory playing a leading role in this quest. Since its founding in 1967, Fermilab scientists have pioneered multiple generations of experiments to learn more about the neutrino, what it could mean for our understanding of physics and its potential benefits for society. Today, Fermilab has embarked on a massive effort to integrate scientists, engineers, technicians, and partners across the globe to safely deliver the most comprehensive neutrino experiment in the world, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment at the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility. Fermilab's top institutional priority is delivering a neutrino beam to DUNE at LBNF by 2031. Once in operation, this experiment will allow scientists to delve even deeper into the mysteries of the neutrino and understand whether neutrinos could be the reason we live in a matter-dominated universe. DUNE at LBNF could also drive innovation in fields that include detector design, cryogenics, medical imaging and high-performance computing, resulting in benefits far beyond particle physics. "For more than half a century, Fermilab has been at the forefront of unlocking the secrets of neutrinos - particles that hold some of the deepest clues about our universe," said Fermilab Director Norbert Holtkamp. "Today, that legacy continues as we drive forward DUNE at LBNF. DUNE is the largest science project in our laboratory's history, and its success will define the future of neutrino research for decades to come." Fermilab will produce the world's most intense beam of neutrinos with the Proton Improvement Plan-II project using the PIP-II linear accelerator to send neutrinos from Fermilab in Illinois to Lead, South Dakota, 800 miles away. Underpinning all of the work on DUNE at LBNF, PIP-II and efforts across the lab to prepare to operate the experiment are disciplined execution and operational focus on safety, quality and schedule. "The combination of size and precision in DUNE is unlike anything we've had before," said Anne Schukraft, scientist in the Intensity Frontier Division at Fermilab. "I'm actually hoping that we find something that we cannot even think of now - something completely unexpected that changes the way we think about neutrinos and the Standard Model of particle physics." Decades of neutrino physics at Fermilab. After Fermilab began operations in 1967, it didn't take long for it to take up the neutrino cause. Beginning with early experiments, including a 15-foot bubble chamber and the E1A experiment, the stage was set for neutrino research. Scientists at Fermilab discovered the tau neutrino, a third type of neutrino, through the Direct Observation of Nu Tau, or DONUT, experiment in 2000. Leveraging the strength of Fermilab's Tevatron - the most powerful particle accelerator in the world at the time - the NuTeV experiment made measurements in the late 1990s using beams of high energy neutrinos and antineutrinos. "NuTeV was the culmination of a long series of precision neutrino experiments at Fermilab that used neutrinos to probe the structure of matter and the weak interaction," said Bob Bernstein, Fermilab senior scientist and former NuTeV co-spokesperson. "It also helped train many of the scientists who went on to lead the next generation of neutrino experiments." With the completion of the Main Injector in 1999 - a 2-mile circular accelerator - and an intense beam of neutrinos called NuMI, Fermilab launched a new era of neutrino research that brought the MINOS, MINERvA and NOvA experiments. MINERvA took data to study neutrino-nucleus interactions from 2010 to 2019, and physicists are still analyzing those data and publishing new results today. MINOS, the lab's first long-baseline neutrino experiment, provided some of the world's most precise measurements of a phenomenon called neutrino oscillations, which describes how the neutrino's flavor changes as it travels over space and time. It also laid the groundwork for future long-baseline neutrino experiments like DUNE. NOvA, another crucial neutrino experiment hosted by Fermilab, is the only currently operating long-baseline neutrino experiment in the United States and is producing some of the most precise measurements of neutrino behavior. With its near detector at Fermilab and its far detector in Ash River, Minnesota, NOvA is taking data and measuring neutrino oscillations over a 500-mile distance. "By increasing this travel distance to 800 miles, DUNE will take a giant leap forward in pushing such neutrino exploration into a new era of precision and discovery potential," said Sam Zeller, Fermilab senior scientist and deputy project director for the DUNE at LBNF near detector. Fermilab is the only facility in the world that simultaneously also operates a second accelerator-based beamline. This low energy Booster Neutrino Beam was born with MiniBooNE and has since expanded into the Short-Baseline Neutrino program, consisting of SBND, MicroBooNE and ICARUS. The short-baseline trio of experiments produces high-precision measurements, and it is designed to investigate the possible existence of a theorized fourth type of neutrino called sterile neutrino. "We are one of the only facilities in the world that can produce neutrinos in an accelerator beam - in a controlled environment with high intensity," said Schukraft. While MicroBooNE stopped taking data in 2021, SBND and ICARUS are still active today. Future combined results promise to shed more light on the fourth-neutrino mystery. Paving the way for innovation. All of Fermilab's previous neutrino research and detector development has not only established the laboratory as a global leader in neutrino science, but also significantly contributed to DUNE. For example, MINOS paved the way as the world's first long-baseline neutrino experiment. The SBN program's liquid-argon time projection chambers provided a proving ground for the same technology that will be used in DUNE's detectors. Going forward, Fermilab researchers will continue to use neutrino research to drive innovation. For example, at DUNE, artificial intelligence tools will rapidly analyze millions of particle interactions, help identify rare signals such as early supernova signatures and support detector operations. Seventy years after neutrinos were first detected, Fermilab continues to lead the world in neutrino science. Through DUNE at LBNF, PIP-II and the expertise built through generations of discovery, Fermilab is delivering the scientific capabilities that will define the next era of particle physics and strengthen America's leadership in discovery and innovation. 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.