Emory physicists receive Genesis Mission award to study plasma with AI

Emory physicists Justin Burton and Ilya Nemenman will lead a Department of Energy Genesis Mission team using AI to study plasma fluid dynamics across environments, from laboratory systems to astrophysical events. The phase-one award is part of a national effort to combine AI, supercomputing, quantum systems and advanced instruments to speed scientific discovery.

The project builds on Burton and Nemenman’s recent AI method that uncovered new physics in dusty plasma and won the 2025 Cozzarelli Prize. They aim to create a tool that can analyze systems ranging from a 2,000-particle lab setup to complex plasma shaped by supernovas and gamma ray bursts, with the broader goal of finding laws that describe highly complex matter.

The Emory-led team includes Princeton University astrophysicist Anatoly Spitkovsky and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory physicist Ammar Hakim. Emory computational biologist Yana Bromberg will also contribute to a separate Genesis Mission project developing AI tools for biomining critical minerals from mine waste by integrating microbial, hydrogeologic and geochemical data.