Prasanna Balaprakash PhD

Prasanna Balaprakash is the Director of AI Programs and the Section Head of Data and AI Systems in the Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He co-leads the AI Initiative—an LDRD portfolio focused on secure, trustworthy, and efficient AI for scientific discovery, experimental facilities, and national security. His research interests span artificial intelligence, machine learning, optimization, and high-performance computing. He serves as the AI lead for several U.S. Department of Energy–funded projects and received the DOE Early Career Award in 2018. Before joining ORNL, Balaprakash held multiple positions at Argonne National Laboratory, progressing from postdoctoral researcher to R&D Group Leader in the Mathematics and Computer Science Division, with a joint appointment at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility. Earlier in his career, he served as Chief Technology Officer at Mentis SA in Brussels, Belgium. He earned his PhD in 2010 from CoDE-IRIDIA (AI Lab), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie and F.R.S-FNRS Aspirant fellowships from the European Commission and the National Fund for Scientific Research of the Belgian-French Community, respectively.

 

Presentation Title:

ORNL’s AI initiative: Advancing Secure, Assured, and Efficient AI for Scientific Discovery

Presentation Abstract:

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Artificial Intelligence Initiative is driving the advancement of AI methods to accelerate discovery and innovation in science, energy, and national security. With access to world-class computational resources, including the Frontier exascale system, the initiative prioritizes the development of AI foundation models and adaptive AI systems tailored to non-language modalities such as time series, spatial-temporal, multimodal sensor data, and physics-based simulations. These efforts integrate physics-informed learning, uncertainty quantification, and causal reasoning to enable robust, explainable AI applications in complex scientific environments. The initiative supports a diverse portfolio and industry collaborations, spanning strategic domains such as nuclear energy, materials discovery, and national security. It also plays a key role in workforce development through the AI Academy, which engages over 200 researchers across directorates. Through targeted investments and cross-cutting coordination with ORNL’s experimental facilities, the AI Initiative is enabling next-generation AI systems that go beyond language and LLMs to transform and accelerate scientific discovery.