Prasanna Balaprakash, director of AI programs at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been appointed to Tennessee’s Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council.
The council, created this year by the Tennessee legislature, will provide recommendations and draw up an action plan for AI use in state government. Council members are appointed by the governor.
Balaprakash brings more than 15 years of research experience with AI, machine learning and high-performance computing to his role on the council. He holds a doctorate in computer science from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium and has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed research articles.
Balaprakash joined ORNL in 2023 after serving as a computer scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. At Argonne, he won DOE’s Early Career Award and led a research group of more than 10 staff members at varying career levels. The group focused on foundational, applied and scalable scientific AI and machine learning.
As director of ORNL’s AI initiative, Balaprakash oversees a multimillion-dollar portfolio of programs focused on developing secure, trustworthy and energy-efficient AI solutions to tackle problems of national importance. He sets the laboratory’s strategic vision for AI in science and seeks to deliver foundational, scalable and applied AI and machine learning capabilities that support world-class solutions in such fields as computing and computational science, materials science, manufacturing, energy and climate science.
Balaprakash also works with more than 100 researchers through ORNL’s AI Academy to promote the adoption of secure, trustworthy and energy-efficient AI methods.
“AI has the potential to transform how state governments operate by improving efficiency and enhancing services for residents,” Balaprakash said. “Additionally, it presents significant economic opportunities for the state of Tennessee in areas such as manufacturing, healthcare, transportation and agriculture, including attraction of new businesses and creation of high-tech jobs. I look forward to contributing my expertise to help guide the responsible and impactful implementation of AI across the state.”
ORNL’s AI initiative has organized a series of workshops to assist the laboratory’s researchers in rapidly accelerating breakthroughs across the scientific spectrum. ORNL currently boasts more than 300 staff members tackling scientific challenges with the help of AI. These efforts have garnered two R&D 100 Awards and more than 10 patents to date. The laboratory is home to Frontier, the world’s fastest supercomputer and “smartest,” or most AI-ready, high-performance computing system.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
