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Arizona-Livermore Days

When

Please join us at Arizona Livermore Days (February 26 and 27), an important in-person research engagement event with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory featuring a series of interactive sessions that highlight shared strengths and strategic research priorities.

The program will include sessions aligned with the U of A strategic research initiatives and guided by the university and LLNL researchers and leadership. Session topics span Artificial Intelligence, Fusion, National Security, and Space, providing an expert-led forum for showcasing current work, exchanging perspectives, and identifying opportunities for future collaboration. Each session emphasizes discussion and engagement to facilitate cross-disciplinary dialogue among faculty, researchers, and students.

Participants will engage actively in the sessions, connect with colleagues across institutions, and contribute to building long-term collaboration between the U of A and LLNL research communities.

AGENDA: Arizona-Livermore Days

Thursday, February 26

7:30 AM – 8:00 AM | Registration and Breakfast

Fusion Session

8:00 AM – 8:25 AM | Fusion Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)

  • Patrick Poole, Staff Research Scientist, LLNL

8:25 AM – 8:50 AM | Fusion Research at the University of Arizona

  • Horst Hahn, Special Advisor to the SVP for Research and Partnerships, UA

8:50 AM – 9:10 AM | Materials Science for IFE

  • Bassem El-Dasher, Staff Scientist, LLNL

9:10 AM – 9:30 AM | Structural Materials for Extreme Environments from Hypersonics to Fusion Reactors

  • Sammy Tin, Patrick R. Taylor Endowed Department Leadership Chair and Department Head, Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, UA

9:30 AM – 9:50 AM | Nanosensor Strategy for High-Throughput Radiation Sensing

  • Zafer Mutlu, Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, UA

9:50 AM – 10:10 AM | Systems Engineering for IFE

  • Mackenzie Nelson, Techno-economic Systems Analyst, LLNL

10:10 AM – 10:30 AM | Coffee Break

10:30 AM – 10:50 AM | Turbulence Limitations for Imaging, Sensing, and Adaptive Optics

  • Mark Spencer, Robert M. Edmund Endowed Chair in Optical Sciences, Wyant College of Optical Sciences, UA

10:50 AM – 11:10 AM | Optical Modeling for NIF and IFE

  • Sam McLaren, Computational Laser Physicist, LLNL

11:10 AM – 12:30 PM | Student Presentations and Paths Forward (Discussion)

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM | Lunch

Space Session

2 PM – 2:15 PM | Context and Rationale

  • Daniel Apai, Professor, Astronomy and Planetary Sciences, College of Science, UA
  • Nate Golovich, Physicist, LLNL

2:15 PM – 2:35 PM | ZTF, Rubin with National Security Implications and HPC-Enabled Science

  • Nate Golovich, Staff Physicist, LLNL

2:35 PM – 2:55 PM | Science with the NASA Pandora SmallSat Mission

  • Daniel Apai, Professor, Astronomy and Planetary Sciences, College of Science, UA

2:55 PM – 3:15 PM | Pandora Exoplanet Atmosphere Retrieval

  • Peter McGill, Research Scientist, Physics, LLNL

3:15 PM – 3:35 PM | Large Etendue Space Telescope Concepts Using Novel Fabrication Approaches

  • Daewook Kim, Professor, Optical Sciences, Wyant College of Optical Sciences, UA

3:35 PM – 4:00 PM | Break

4:00 PM – 4:20 PM | Arizona Space Institute and the Applied Research Building

  • Nic Altamirano, Acting Mission Operations Manager, Arizona Space Institute, UA

4:20 PM – 4:40 PM | The LUX Small Explorer Mission

  • David Sand, Professor, Astronomy, College of Science, UA

4:40 PM – 5:00 PM | Overview of Livermore Space Hardware Development Work

  • Nate Golovich, Staff Physicist, LLNL

5:00 PM – 5:30 PM | Paths Forward (Discussion)

6 PM | No-Host Networking at Crooked Tooth Brewing Company, 228 E. 6th St. Pizza from Anello Pizzeria provided. 

Friday, February 27

8:30 AM – 9 AM | Registration and Breakfast

AI Session

9 AM – 9:15 AM | Opening Remarks, University of Arizona Projects in AI

  • David Ebert, Chief AI and Data Science Officer, Office of Research and Partnerships, University of Arizona (UA)
  • Barney Maccabe, Professor and Associate Dean for Research, College of Information Science, UA

9:15 AM – 9:40 AM | Livermore National Laboratory: Genesis Projects

  • Jeff Hittinger, Deputy Associate Director for Science and Technology, Computing Principal Associate Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)

9:40 AM – 10:05 AM | Robust, Scalable and Trustworthy AI

  • Ravi Tandon, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, UA

10:05 AM – 10:30 AM | Self-Driving Laboratories for Energy Storage Materials Innovation

  • Majid Beidaghi, Associate Professor, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, UA

10:30 AM – 10:50 AM | Coffee Break

10:50 AM – 11:15 AM | Automating Computational Materials and Molecule Design with Explainable AI

  • Thomas Purcell, Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Science, UA

11:15 AM – 11:40 AM | AI for Materials and Quantum

  • Tuan Anh Pham, Group Leader, Quantum Simulations Group, Materials Science Division, LLNL

11:40 AM – 12:05 PM | Perspective on AI and Materials

  • Marat Latypov, Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, UA

12:05 PM – 12:30 PM | Data-Driven Discovery of Continuum Scale Models from Atomistic Simulations

  • Amit Samanta, Staff Scientist, Equations of State and Materials Science Group, LLNL

12:30 PM – 2 PM | Lunch

2 PM – 2:25 PM | Perspective on AI in Astro and Fluids

  • Chi-Kwan (CK) Chan, Associate Astronomer, Steward Observatory, UA

2:25 PM – 2:50 PM | Bridging Mathematical Rigor and Data Scalability: Data-Driven Finite Element

  • Tony Cheung, Staff Research Scientist, Center for Applied Scientific Computing, LLNL

2:50 PM – 3:15 PM | Compositional Program Synthesis in Typed Domain-Specific Languages 

  • Marek Rychlik, Professor, Mathematics, College of Science, UA

3:15 PM – 3:30 PM | Paths Forward (Discussion)

3:30 PM – 3:50 PM | Coffee Break

National Security Session

3:50 PM – 4:05 PM | Opening Remarks

  • Gen. (ret.) Thomas Kunkel, Kyl Institute for National Security, UofA

4:05 PM–4:25 PM | DDD-GenDT: Dynamic Data-Driven Generative Digital Twin Framework

  • Pratik Satam, Assistant Professor, Systems and Industrial Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, UofA

4:25 PM–4:45 PM | Large scale optimization methods for Robust and adversarial machine learning

  • Erfan Yazdandoost Hamedani, Assistant Professor, Systems and Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, UofA

4:45 PM–5:05 PM | Sampling Scenarios and Decisions with Generative AI in National Security Applications

  • Michael (Misha) Chertkov, Professor, Mathematics, College of Science, UofA

5:05 PM–5:25 PM | High-Fidelity Stochastic Optimization for Long-Term Power System Planning

  • Elizabeth Glista, Optimization & Power Systems Researcher/Engineer, LLNL

5:25 PM–5:55 PM | Critical Supply Chains Under Stress: System Analysis for National Security

  • Michael Grappone, National Security Systems Analyst in the Computational Engineering Division, LLNL

5:55 PM–6:15 PM | Interdiction and Hardening of Critical Infrastructure

  • Andrew Mastin, Research Scientist in the Operations Research and Systems Analysis Group, LLNL

6:15 PM –6:30 PM | Paths Forward (Discussion and Open Mic)