Baruch Professor Leads DOE-Funded AI Research Project Exploring the Origins of the Universe

Baruch Professor Leads DOE-Funded AI Research Project Exploring the Origins of the Universe

July 27, 2026

Baruch College Professor Stefan Bathe, PhD, has been awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to serve as lead principal investigator on a multi-institutional research project that combines artificial intelligence and particle physics to explore conditions that existed immediately after the Big Bang.

The nine-month project is part of the DOE's Genesis Mission, a $5 billion national initiative that brings together national laboratories, universities, and industry partners to harness artificial intelligence for breakthroughs in discovery science, energy, and national security.

From more than 5,000 proposals submitted nationwide, just 278 projects-or 5 percent-were selected to receive funding.

Beginning Aug. 1, 2026, Bathe will lead researchers from Baruch College, the University of Colorado Boulder, Columbia University, and Brookhaven National Laboratory in developing new AI tools capable of uncovering hidden patterns in data from high-energy particle collisions.

"Professor Bathe's leadership of this DOE-funding project demonstrates how Baruch faculty are advancing knowledge at the frontiers of science while harnessing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence," said Linda Essig, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. "We are proud to support research that expands our understanding of the universe and showcases the impact of faculty discovery and innovation."

What Happened After the Big Bang?

"One of the great challenges in physics is understanding how matter behaved in the earliest moments of the universe," said Bathe, who teaches physics at Baruch's Weissman School for Arts and Sciences and has nearly 30 years of experience in experimental high-energy nuclear physics.

High-energy particle collisions can recreate-for a fraction of a second-the extreme conditions believed to have existed in the universe's earliest moments. By analyzing those collisions, scientists can study quark-gluon plasma, an ultra-hot state of matter that filled the universe shortly after the Big Bang. Among the most useful probes are jets - narrow sprays of particles that are modified as they traverse the plasma.

"Advances in artificial intelligence are giving us powerful new ways to analyze complex data and uncover clues about conditions that existed immediately after the Big Bang. We're excited to bring together experts from multiple institutions to pursue these questions."

A New AI-Powered Approach

What makes the project unique is its novel application of artificial intelligence to particle physics research, explains Bathe.

For decades, physicists have studied quark-gluon plasma by examining individual jet properties selected in advance by researchers, leaving much of the available detector information untapped. Bathe's team will instead develop AI systems capable of learning directly from raw detector images, allowing the technology to identify subtle patterns and effects without being told what to look for.

The approach has the potential to reveal previously unseen features of quark-gluon plasma and provide a more complete picture of how matter behaved during the first microseconds after the Big Bang.

Collaboration Across Leading Institutions

The project brings together researchers from Baruch College, the University of Colorado Boulder, Columbia University, and Brookhaven National Laboratory - a team built on long-standing partnerships. Bathe has collaborated with the participating scientists for years on the sPHENIX experiment at Brookhaven's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, whose detector will supply the data for the project. The team also includes the Brookhaven group that developed the AI architecture at the heart of the project.

The roughly $650,000 award is administered through Baruch College as the lead institution.

Beyond the Project's Discoveries

Outside of advancing scientists' understanding of the early universe, the project's AI techniques could influence future research at major international facilities, including CERN and the planned Electron-Ion Collider, a next-generation particle accelerator being built at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, in partnership with the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.

Bathe believes the project's significance reaches well beyond the fundamental questions that inspired it.

"One of the most exciting aspects of this work is the AI technique could be transferable to other major and groundbreaking experiments," said Bathe.

"The approach could eventually inform significant advances in other data-intensive fields, including medical imaging and scientific discovery across a wide range of disciplines."