Arizona–Livermore Days
Thursday, February 26 – Friday, February 27, 2026
Grand Challenges Research Building
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, UA
4:05–4:20 PM | Building the Future of Manufacturing: Intelligent, Secure, Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems
- Mohammed Shafae, Assistant Professor, Systems and Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, UA
4:20 PM–4:35 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, UA
4:35 PM–4:50 PM | Large scale optimization methods for Robust and adversarial machine learning
- Erfan Yazdandoost Hamedani, Assistant Professor, Systems and Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, UA
4:50 PM–5:05 PM | Sampling Scenarios and Decisions with Generative AI in National Security Applications
- Michael (Misha) Chertkov, Professor, Mathematics, College of Science, UA
5:05 PM–5:20 PM | High-Fidelity Stochastic Optimization for Long-Term Power System Planning
- Elizabeth Glista, Optimization & Power Systems Researcher/Engineer, LLNL
5:20 PM–5:35 PM | Critical Supply Chains Under Stress: System Analysis for National Security
- Michael Grappone, National Security Systems Analyst in the Computational Engineering Division, LLNL
5:35 PM–5:50 PM | Interdiction and Hardening of Critical Infrastructure
- Andrew Mastin, Research Scientist in the Operations Research and Systems Analysis Group, LLNL
5:50 PM–6:30 PM | Paths Forward (Discussion and Open Mic)