WEI hosts research showcase for Department of Energy leader

A man in a blue blazer looks on with a smile as a bearded man in a red checked shirt and safety glasses gestures animatedly beside a glovebox with black gloves in a laboratory.

Michael Botts, right, leader of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center’s High-throughput BioDesign Facility, describes Proteus, GLBRC’s AI-enabled autonomous lab, to Darío Gil, under secretary for science at the U.S. Department of Energy, during a tour at the Wisconsin Energy Institute at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. Image by: Matthew Wisniewski/Wisconsin Energy Institute

The Wisconsin Energy Institute hosted a top official from the U.S. Department of Energy Monday during a visit focused on the University of Wisconsin–Madison's strengths in research areas including quantum science, fusion energy, critical minerals, and biotechnology.

DOE Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil met with researchers from across campus and local tech industries during the daylong visit hosted by UW–Madison Vice Chancellor for Research Dorota Brzezinska.

The tour provided Gil a firsthand chance to learn about UW–Madison’s research enterprise and alignment with DOE priorities. Discussions focused on opportunities to strengthen public-private partnerships, accelerate technology commercialization, expand workforce development and better position Wisconsin as a well-coordinated innovation ecosystem.

The visit also examined the growing role of artificial intelligence in research and education.

“Everything about the classroom has changed because of AI,” Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau, founding dean of the College of Computing & Artificial Intelligence, explained during the visit.

Other participants in the visit included leaders from the Wisconsin Quantum Institute, Data Science Institute, College of Engineering and College of Letters & Science, as well as the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Sandia National Laboratories, Wisconsin Quantum Alliance, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, Wisconsin Technology Council, and the UW–Madison spinoffs Realta Fusion, SHINE, and Type One Energy.

Around a long conference table with drinks and snacks, a man in a navy blazer gestures while speaking to a group of attendees, with large windows and city buildings behind them.

Kyle Joseph, third from left, associate director of business engagement for the Collective for Research Impact and Social Partnerships at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, speaks during a lunch discussion with Darío Gil, under secretary for science at the U.S. Department of Energy, at the Wisconsin Energy Institute on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. The discussion focused on quantum computing, artificial intelligence and UW–Madison’s commitment to DOE mission objectives. Image by: Matthew Wisniewski/Wisconsin Energy Institute

“In Wisconsin, we are taking ‘Eureka!’ moments and bringing them to life,” Realta Fusion CEO Kieran Furlong said.

A national leader in the Genesis Mission

Among the major focus areas of the visit was UW–Madison’s participation in DOE’s Genesis Mission. The university recently received five Genesis Mission Round 1 awards, supporting projects in AI, fusion energy, critical mineral recovery and advanced computing. UW–Madison earned more Genesis awards than any public university in the nation, tying Stanford University and trailing only the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Gil encouraged participants to “become an integral part of the (Genesis) platform,” emphasizing the importance of aligning institutional strengths with national scientific priorities.

Gil also toured the university’s Proteus autonomous laboratory at the Wisconsin Energy Institute, and other major biotechnology facilities, including the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and the Wisconsin Crop Innovation Center. He heard from scientists about how automation, genomics, plant science and bioengineering are accelerating the development of sustainable biofuels, renewable chemicals and other biobased products.

Nine people in business attire pose smiling for a group photo in a bright hallway, with a tall man in a bright blue suit standing at the center.

Darío Gil, center, under secretary for science at the U.S. Department of Energy, poses with University of Wisconsin–Madison recipients of DOE Genesis awards and campus and DOE leaders at the Wisconsin Energy Institute on Oct. 26, 2026. From left: Dorota Brzezinska, UW–Madison vice chancellor for research; David Smith, senior scientist in nuclear engineering and engineering physics; Bridget Dunn, back, senior advisor in DOE’s Office of the Under Secretary for Science; Athena Nghiem, assistant professor of geoscience; Gil; Matt Sinclair, associate professor of computer sciences; Mariel Pettee, assistant professor of physics; Paul Wilson, back, Grainger Professor of Nuclear Engineering; and Kyle Cranmer, professor of physics and director of the Data Science Institute. Image by: Matthew Wisniewski / Wisconsin Energy Institute

Participants also emphasized the university’s longstanding leadership in DOE-supported bioenergy research.

Another session during the visit brought together early-career faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from disciplines including chemical engineering, quantum computing, materials science, nuclear engineering and computer science. The conversation explored the role of federal research investments and how emerging researchers are using AI, machine learning and advanced computational tools to address challenges.

“As faculty, we think a lot about how AI has changed our responsibility and role in training students to go out into the world,” said Rose Cersonsky, UW–Madison chemical and biological engineering professor and one of two DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program awardees at UW–Madison in attendance. (The other was Siddarth Krishna, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.)

Bold approaches to the frontier sciences

Finally, a fusion energy roundtable highlighted Wisconsin’s vision for building a fusion innovation hub rooted in the university’s longstanding expertise in plasma physics and projects such as WHAM, a prototype plasma fusion device that operates in partnership with Realta. Participants emphasized collaboration among universities, industry, government agencies and national laboratories to accelerate the development of next-generation energy technologies.

Throughout the visit, Gil challenged participants to think boldly about where their research could be in a year, building on Wisconsin’s current strengths in the frontier sciences — those cutting-edge, emerging, and highly interdisciplinary fields of research that sit at the boundaries of current human knowledge and technological capability.

“This is not just about university growth,” said Brzezinska, emphasizing the impact of this work on people in Wisconsin and beyond. “It is about leveraging partnerships to build an ecosystem across the state, region and country for translation, evolving the supply chain, workforce development and manufacturing.”

A version of this story was originally published by the UW–Madison Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research.