Dan Lu

Dr. Dan Lu is a Senior Computational Earth Scientist in the Computational Sciences and Engineering Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She specializes in integrating advanced computational methods with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) to address complex challenges in hydrology and Earth system modeling. Her research spans uncertainty quantification (UQ), data assimilation, multi-data and multi-model integration, and the development of physics-informed, explainable, and trustworthy AI foundational models.

As a Principal Investigator, Dr. Lu leads multiple U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) projects spanning coastal flooding prediction, Earth system modeling, groundwater level prediction, hydropower inflow forecasting, geophysical inversion, and geological carbon storage simulation. She has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and developed two AI–UQ toolsets: AI for UQ , which accelerates forward and inverse UQ using generative AI, and UQ for AI, which quantifies predictive uncertainty in AI models. Dr. Lu is an active contributor to the scientific community, serving on program committees for international conferences, review panels for federal funding agencies, and editorial boards of four leading geoscience journals.

Dr. Lu earned her Ph.D. in Computational Hydrology from Florida State University in 2012 and received the DOE Early Career Award in 2023.