Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a powerful tool to help solve scientific problems. In an interview with the EY Leading into Tomorrow podcast, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Johns Hopkins University Joint Appointee Mitra Taheri provided her perspective on how AI can accelerate materials science.

Listen to the podcast on Amazon, Podbean, Apple podcasts, or Spotify.

Taheri was part of a conversation with Amy Jones, the U.S. Public Sector AI Lead for EY, and host Tim Smith of EY. In the podcast, Taheri discusses how AI can aid scientists in materials discovery, testing, and production. The conversation also touches on the state of science with regards to automation versus autonomy, an area of interest in Taheri’s research.

Taheri’s work uses electron microscopy, specifically in situ microscopy, to study materials in a range of environments. These often-extreme environments include high temperatures, stress, radiation, oxidation, and more. Her team is integrating AI into microscopes to detect what is being seen faster and more efficiently. 

Taheri is the chief materials scientist in the Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate at PNNL and is the chief scientist of the AT SCALE Initiative. At Johns Hopkins, she is a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, director of the Materials Characterization and Processing facility, and a member of the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute.