The U.S. Energy Department has named University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella to the new Office of Science Advisory Committee, established to provide independent advice on scientific and technical challenges, probably including fusion energy, a UA initiative.
Garimella will be one of 21 representatives from universities, national laboratories, foundations and corporations appointed to the advisory committee. He is one of two university presidents named, along with University of Wyoming President Edward Seidel, the UA said in a news release Wednesday.
He said in the news release that he is honored by the federal appointment and looks forward to this work "at a critical moment for scientific and technological advancement in energy and related areas."
Darío Gil, the Energy Department's undersecretary for science, was quoted in the release as saying the department is creating a collaborative framework of “leading minds from diverse institutions” to enhance scientific ambitions and “accelerate the translation of fundamental research into tangible benefits for the American people.”
Garimella
Garimella’s role on the committee — as a “distinguished scholar and national research leader with experience advising major science organizations and research institutions” — will be to offer input on priorities, coordination and research challenges in the DOE's Office of Science.
The UA president's experience includes serving as a member of the National Science Board; chairing the research advisory board for Sandia National Laboratories; serving on the executive committee of the Council on Competitiveness; serving as a Jefferson Science Fellow with the U.S. State Department and as Senior Fellow of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas.
In addition to being UA president, Garimella is a distinguished professor in the university's department of mechanical and aerospace engineering.
The group will offer advice on Office of Science priorities, including the Genesis Mission, fusion energy and quantum science. On a broader level, the Energy Department under the Trump administration also wants to maximize domestic energy production, accelerate nuclear energy, and integrate artificial intelligence into energy infrastructure, the news release said.
Garimella and UA Senior Vice President for Research Tomás Díaz de la Rubia have said the UA will be an academic leader in partnering with the private sector and the federal government on the national mission to harness fusion energy on Earth.
“We’re now in a race to commercialize fusion, to bring fusion to the market — to put electrons from fusion energy, from fusion reactions, on the grid,” Díaz de la Rubia told the Arizona Daily Star in April 2025.
Fusion energy is the fusion of hydrogen atoms under very high pressures and temperatures, Díaz de la Rubia said. The process of achieving fusion in a controlled way on Earth is very difficult, and has been a long-time scientific quest.
The new federal committee will be chaired by Persis Drell of Stanford University, director emerita of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
