Sandia scientists Mitchell Wood and Gianluca Geraci recently received 2024 DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program awards. They will each receive $2.75 million over five years to support their research in the Office of Science program areas of Fusion Energy Sciences and Advanced Scientific Computing Research. A total of 91 awardees from universities and national labs were chosen through peer review by scientific experts from a large pool of applicants.
Mitch Wood
Computer scientist Mitch Wood works in the computational multiscale department. His research spans multiple disciplines, ranging from developing tools and methods to application-driven projects. Currently, his research spans plasma-facing materials, multiscale modeling of shock compression and physics-inspired machine learning.
“I am exhilarated by work that leverages my background in physics, materials engineering and computational methods to forge new perspective on challenging, impactful problems,” Mitch said.
With the award funding, Mitch plans to conduct a multiyear, in-depth study on how materials withstand radiation damage and to develop new methods that contribute to the design of fusion power plants. His proposal is titled “Mechanisms of Non-Equilibrium Ion Dynamics in Radiation Tolerant Alloys.”
“At the core of my research is the idea that new data-science methods can capture physical processes that have historically been too computationally expensive to apply to materials for fusion energy. However, there is no free lunch,” Mitch said. “The challenge is that you must train these methods on expensive predictions to extend them to the problems I am interested in. Therefore, the first phase of my work will focus on defining the accuracy-cost tradeoffs between the underlying theory and the proposed methods.”
Gianluca Geraci
Computational scientist Gianluca Geraci works in the optimization and uncertainty quantification department. His current research focuses on uncertainty quantification, multifidelity methods, data-driven approaches and related fields such as dimension reduction and optimization under uncertainty. Uncertainty quantification is a multidisciplinary field at the intersection of applied mathematics, statistics, computer science and physics.
“At DOE and Sandia, we handle high-stakes applications every day. It’s essential to characterize and quantify the uncertainties in our numerical models to build confidence in our scientific predictions, designs and safety and reliability assessments, which often rely on computational models rather than physical experiments. Without a robust uncertainty quantification methodology, we cannot call our computational science ‘predictive,’” said Gianluca, who has applied uncertainty quantification to various problems, including internal and external aerodynamics, wind energy, radiation transport and computer networks.
Gianluca’s awarded project, titled “Enabling Scientific Data-Driven Modeling for Heterogeneous, Multi-Model, Massive, and Distributed Datasets,” aims to advance the development, deployment and analysis of mathematical and algorithmic tools within the field of scientific machine learning. These tools will enable the next generation of scientific discoveries for applications at DOE, which differ from traditional machine learning applications due to their data sparsity.
“I am humbled and grateful to DOE and Office of Science for their confidence in my work and proposed scientific endeavor,” he said. “This award will support my research for the next five years and allow me to build a small team to help develop and realize my scientific vision. My overarching goal is to advance the state of the art of predictive data-driven computational methods using concepts that leverage my uncertainty quantification background. This is how I envision my contribution to the scientific mission of our nation, the Department of Energy and Sandia.”
Support on the path to success
Amanda Barry, manager of the Sandia Office of Science program, emphasized the significance of the Early Career Research Program awards in nurturing emerging scientific talent.
“The DOE Early Career Research Program awards provide researchers with the resources and support they need to pursue innovative and impactful research, driving advancements in fields critical to our nation’s energy and security,” Amanda said.
The Early Career Research Program provides support for exceptional researchers at universities and DOE national laboratories to advance their research careers and expand scientific discovery in areas supported by the DOE Office of Science. These areas include Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Biological and Environmental Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Fusion Energy Sciences, High Energy Physics, Isotope R&D and Production, and Nuclear Physics.