Texas A&M University planned a two-day AI for Nuclear Summit in College Station for August 19 and 20, 2026. Its pitch was simple: put the people who build AI in the same rooms as the people who run reactors, labs and regulators’ checklists, and see what comes out.
The Department of Nuclear Engineering hosted the event with the Texas A&M University System Nuclear Security Office and the Texas A&M Institute of Data Science. Assistant professor Yang Liu organized it. He wrote on LinkedIn that he was honored to do so alongside a program committee of Ayman Hawari, Shuiwang Ji, Pavel Tsvetkov and Mansung Yim.
Who was invited
The organizers said they would bring together leaders from federal agencies, national laboratories, academia and industry. The agenda promised keynotes, technical presentations and panel discussions on how foundational and applied AI could advance nuclear science and engineering, strengthen nuclear safety and security, speed up research and development, and support deployment of next-generation nuclear technologies.
The two keynote speakers were Christopher Ritter and Karthik Duraisamy. Other named speakers and panelists were Earl Lawrence, Donald Haynes, Erik K. Webb, Richard Vilim, Eliu Huerta, Maria Glenski, Holly Flynn, Ahmad Al Rashdan, Joshua Kaizer, Clyde Huibregtse, Tom Gibbs and David Staack.
Liu thanked Nick Duffield of the Institute of Data Science, Evelyn Mullen of the System’s Nuclear Security Office, and external advisors Temitope Taiwo and Geoffrey Fairchild.
The stated goal was to turn AI innovation into “trustworthy, impactful solutions for the nuclear sector.” Texas A&M described the summit as part of a wider push into AI for science, and Liu said he hoped it would lead to new collaborations between the AI and nuclear communities.
