AI Roadshow — Digging into Dirt: Discovering Hidden Ecosystems with DNA and AI
The AI Roadshow brings exciting AI-powered research happening at Argonne to unexpected community spaces. This series features live conversations and panels with Argonne researchers at libraries, museums, university campuses and even comic conventions. Join us to celebrate all things AI for science and 80 years of Argonne!
Join Argonne National Laboratory at the Shorewood-Troy Public Library for Digging into Dirt: Discovering Hidden Ecosystems with DNA and AI.
Ready to unearth the secret life in soil? In this talk, Sarah Owens, molecular biologist and sequencing laboratory manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, takes listeners to the intersection of soil science and artificial intelligence (AI). Owens is kind of like a DNA detective, discovering the plants, animals and microbes in an ecosystem by analyzing traces of their genetic material in the dirt. Get up close and personal with some soil samples and hear how advanced DNA sequencing tools and AI are giving us a better look at the hidden microbial world beneath our feet.
Speakers
Gillian King-Cargile (moderator) is a science communicator at Argonne, where she partners with scientists to tell powerful stories about groundbreaking research and the discoveries shaping our future. She’s also an author of books for children and adults that explore science and imagination.
Sarah Owens runs the Environmental Sample Preparation & Sequencing Facility in the Biosciences Division. She has worked at Argonne since 2010. In addition to having over a decade’s worth of expertise in molecular biology applications, she has spent the majority of that time working in and managing high throughput DNA sequencing facilities. She continues to be an expert in DNA sequencing techniques focusing on characterizing microbial communities from environmental samples. Through her work at Argonne, Sarah has become an integral part of a research community of microbial ecologists, with a worldwide network of collaborators.