SRNL scientist Tom Danielson on working across national labs and the DOE 'Genesis' AI effort

Tom Danielson, the applied sensing and data science team lead at Savannah River National Laboratory, described his academic background in physics, math and materials science and said early tours of national-lab facilities helped determine his career path to DOE work.

"It was pretty much that moment that I decided I wanted to work at a DOE national lab," Danielson said, recounting visits to the High Flux Isotope Reactor and the Savannah River site while a graduate student.

Danielson also discussed the Genesis initiative at the Department of Energy, describing it as a major AI undertaking that involves all 17 national labs and enables collaboration across the complex to apply AI to national-security, environmental and energy-resilience missions.

He said cross-lab collaboration is a key benefit: "In the new Genesis mission, it's all 17 national labs that are involved, right? So you're able to work with your colleagues across the complex." Danielson framed the effort as an opportunity to scale methods developed at individual labs and to harness unique datasets held across the DOE enterprise.