With over two decades of experience across artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), digital transformation and materials informatics, Tammie Borders proudly holds the position of associate director of Computational Science and Engineering here at NETL.

Prior to coming to NETL in January 2024, she was a distinguished computer scientist at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). There she worked on developing and operationalizing AI, modeling and simulation and quantum information sciences (QIS) to the Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation mission space.

She is a dynamic research and development (R&D) leader with diverse experience in research management, ideation and incubation and execution to meet future energy and national security needs. Along with her experience, Borders also has a doctorate in computational physical chemistry from the University of North Texas.

Borders was very interested in computational drug design in high school because she wanted to make an impact with cancer and retroviruses medicines.

“But, looking around, I didn’t see role models, so I thought about just being a pharmacist,” Borders explained. “Fortunately, my path did eventually lead to computational materials design but having that role model that looked and sounded like me probably would have landed me in a different career.”

While working at Lockheed Martin, Borders was the computational materials lead for an initiative aimed at reducing the weight of the warfighter. They were able to get a new product out the door in three years versus the normal 20. The critical reason — they worked across boundaries from research to product lines and included regulatory and legal considerations.

Taking the work at Lockheed, she extended the thinking to computational catalysis research. According to Borders, this area of research is hard because even the best high-performance computing technology (HPC) today can’t get the exact answers we need to fully understand the problem. Borders and her colleagues proposed a novel approach leveraging AI/ML and physics and made the cover of the Catalysis Journal for the work.

In her current position, Borders is creating a scientific digital tapestry that helps enable the transition to an equitable, clean energy future.

According to Borders, Women’s History Month creates concrete and visible role models to inspire future generations.

“When you hear someone is a rocket scientist, who do you see?” said Borders. “I see Yvonne Brill, a pioneer in rocket propulsion systems for satellites.”

Tammy Borders