Mark Raugas

Initiative Lead and Chief Scientist

Mark serves as PNNL’s Mathematics for Artificial Reasoning in Science (MARS) initiative lead. He has contributed to the artificial intelligence rapid internal investment, and led research activities in high performance data analytics portfolio, including work maturing the Rust programming language for use in high-performance computing.

Brian Kritzstein 

Deputy Initiative Lead and Program Development Lead

Brian serves as the MARS Deputy Initiative Lead and Program Development Lead. As an advisor in the National Security Directorate, Brian supports project applications, technology transition opportunities, sponsor engagements, and both internal and external outreach efforts in support of the MARS initiative.

Brett Jefferson

Human Factors Lead

Brett serves as the MARS initiative Human Factors Thread Lead and is the principle investigator for the Human Factors Assessment Methodology for Machine Learning with Power Operators project. This project aims to measure cognitive load, reliance, and efficiency when power grid operators use machine learning tools. Brett is a mathematical psychologist with a special interest in cognitive models and topological data analysis.

Mahantesh Halappanavar

AI Methods Lead

Mahantesh serves as the MARS initiative AI methods lead. As a chief computer scientist at PNNL, his research has spanned multiple technical foci and includes combinatorial scientific computing, parallel graph algorithms, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the application of graph theory and game theory to solve problems in application domains

Emilie Purvine

Analytical Sciences Lead

Emilie serves as the MARS Analytical Sciences Thrust Lead and is focused on the advances of analytical tools and systems. Within the National Security Directorate, she focuses on applications of combinatorics and computational topology, together with theoretical advances needed to support the applications.