
I am a Computational Mathematician in Laboratory for Applied Mathematics, Numerical Software, and Statistics, Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory, and a Senior Scientist at-Large at the University of Chicago Consortium for Advanced Science and Engineering. My research focuses on foundation models, agentic AI and LLM multi-agent systems, privacy-preserving federated learning, and large-scale optimization on high-performance computing systems and GPUs for scientific discovery. I lead Argonne’s foundation-model and agentic-AI programs, including LUMINA (topology-transferable foundation models), GridMind (multi-agent LLM workflow), and APPFL (privacy-preserving federated learning framework), applied to areas including electric grid systems, healthcare, and key scientific domains of interest to the Department of Energy. Before joining Argonne, I obtained a Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences from Northwestern University (my academic tree). I am a recipient of DOE Early Career Research Program award. I serve as associate editors in Mathematical Programming Computation and Naval Research Logistics and board members for COIN-OR Foundation and IISE Energy Systems.
- See my Google Scholar page for publications.
- See my GitHub page for software packages.
- Check out the website for our privacy-preserving federated learning project.
My research in a few words (Last update: December 2025):

Awards and Honors
- IEEE Senior Member, 2022
- IMPACT Argonne Award (Computing, Environment and Life Sciences directorate), September 2021
- IMPACT Argonne Award (Energy and Global Security directorate), August 2021
- Early Career Research Program, US Department of Energy, 2019
- Employee of the Month, Decision and Infrastructure Sciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 2019
- George L. Nemhauser Best Student Paper, Northwestern University, 2014
- Best Poster Award (selected among nearly 2,000 posters), American College of Cardiology’s 61st Annual Scientific Session & Expo, 2012
Media
- AI agents and foundation models highlighted at the Genesis Mission Summit, Jul 2026
- Argonne at TPC 2026, Jun 2026
- DOE Under Secretary of Science TPC Keynote highlighting GridAI and SYNAPS-I/PtychoFM, Jun 2026
- “GridMind: Powering the Control Room of the Future with AI Agents”, Mar 2026
- “Argonne Researchers Develop AI System to Enhance Electric Grid Efficiency and Reliability”, Mar 2026
- “Advances in AI for Science: DOE’s National Laboratories”, DOE Office of Science Advisory Committee, Mar 2026
- “Seven Argonne projects receive computing time to power breakthroughs in AI, science and engineering”, Jul 2025
- “Advancing grid intelligence: Argonne hosts workshop on AI foundation models”, May 2025
- “Real-time AI engine poised to revolutionize large-scale imaging data at national labs” (SYNAPS-I), Apr 2025
- Argonne OutLoud public lecture: “A Win-Win: AI Empowering the Grid, the Grid Energizing AI”, Sep 2025
- AI helps build smarter, more resilient power grids, May 2025
- Harnessing LLMs for Scientific Computing, May 2025
- Argonne at NeurIPS 2024, Dec 2024
- MCS researcher Kibaek Kim gives talk to science committee, Oct 2024
- Argonne receives funding for artificial intelligence in scientific research, Oct 2024
- Presentation at the DOE ASCAC Meeting, Sep 2024
- Mentioned by the DOE Under Secretary, May 2024
- Highlighted at the DOE ASCAC Meeting, Sep 2023
- Highlighted at the DOE ASCAC Meeting, Mar 2022
- SIAG/OPT Views and News, Dec 2021
- Banishing blackouts, Oct 2020
- How does AI improve grid performance? No one fully understands and that’s limiting its use, Nov 2019
- New funding awarded to two early career scientists, Aug 2019
- Artificial Intelligence Can Make the U.S. Electric Grid Smarter, Jun 2019
Advisees
Postdoctoral Appointees
- Seok-Ju (Adam) Hahn (2025–present)
- Emon Dey (2025–present)
- Yijiang Li (2023–present)
- Charikleia Iakovidou (2022–2025)
- Hideaki Nakao (2021–2024)
- Minseok Ryu (2020–2023)
- Geunyeong Byeon (2020)
- Bowen Li (2019–2023; with Sven Leyffer)
- Anirudh Subramanyam (2018–2022; with Mihai Anitescu)
- Brian Dandurand (2017–2020)
Predoctoral Appointees
- Miao Li (2022–2023; with Mihai Anitescu)
- Yuxuan Ren (2021–2022; with Mihai Anitescu)
- Jisung Hwang (2020–2021; with Mihai Anitescu)
Ph.D. Interns
- Sungmin Kang (USC, 2026) ; David Jin (MIT, 2025) ; Christopher Lee (UIUC, 2025) ; Guangji Bai (Emory, 2024; with Yijiang Li) ; Xu Chen (Columbia, 2024) ; Shuai Li (Georgia Tech, 2024) ; Shourya Bose (UC Santa Clara, 2024, 2023) ; Weiqi Zhang (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2022) ; Rachael Alfant (Rice University, 2022) ; Nick Dodd (Arizona State University, 2022) ; Jiaze Ma (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2022) ; Ashutosh Shukla (University of Texas-Austin, 2022) ; Sayed A. Sadat (University of Utah, 2021) ; Sihan Zeng (Georgia Tech, 2021) ; Haoming Shen (University of Michigan, 2021) ; Can Li (Carnegie Mellon University, 2020) ; Sayed A. Sadat (University of Utah, 2020) ; Weiqi Zhang (University of Wisconsin, 2020) ; Hideaki Nakao (University of Michigan, 2020) ; Yingqiu Zhang (Virginia Tech, 2020) ; Junyi Tu (University of South Florida, 2019; with Michel Schanen) ; Jie Zhang (Virginia Tech, 2019) ; Mohamed El Tonbari (Georgia Tech, 2019, 2018) ; Cheolmin Kim (Northwestern University, 2018) ; Rui Ray Liu (Georgia Tech, 2018; with Mihai Anitescu) ; Liu Su (University of South Florida, 2018) ; Youngkyu Cho (Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea, 2018) ; Gokce Kahvecioglu (Northwestern University, 2016) ; Jordan Jalving (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2016) ; Christian Tjandraatmadja (Carnegie Mellon University, 2015)