ORISE Featurecast

James Dewar, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry at Vanderbilt University, uses Large Language Models (LLMs, a type of generative artificial intelligence) in his research. In a recent article published at nature.com, Dewar writes that to get more from AI researchers should treat every prompt like an experiment. In this episode of the ORISE Featurecast, Dewar talks in more depth about his article and gives a preview of his upcoming ORISE Symposium Seminar on the use of LLMs for science and research. He also discusses and shares some of the tools he has developed to help students and researchers better understand how to use LLMs effectively.

For more information and to register for the ORISE Symposium, visit https://orise.orau.gov/news/events/symposium.html

Read Dewar’s Nature Careers article: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02083-6

Some of the links mentioned in the conversation are listed below:
Papers showing AI automating the early stages of drug discovery
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10644-y
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10652-y

Paper comparing AI to physicians at clinical reasoning
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz4433

Preprint from Dewar on AI use for scientists: https://zenodo.org/records/19177101

Preprint from Dewar on how to teach with AI: https://osf.io/preprints/edarxiv/t8mea

Dewar’s personal website with free tools: https://www.jmdewar.com/

This is the specific meta prompt tool he mentions: https://prompting.jmdewar.com/meta

Links not mentioned in the Featurecast but that may be of interest:
Dewar’s ORCID and Linkedin:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4153-3818
https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-m-dewar/

Links to the graduate biomedical programs at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/igp/igp-program-overview/
https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/qcb/qcb-program-overview/

Hampton Kennedy was between jobs when he came across an opportunity for the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Research Participation Program Fellowship. The fellowship blended history – Hampton is a history teacher – and ecology in that it focused on the history of signal crayfish in Montana. In this episode of the ORISE Featurecast, Hampton talks about the process of investigating the history of signal crayfish. Few studies had been done prior to this project, but determining whether signal crayfish are a native species or were introduced affects how ecologists manage their presence. Hampton found mentions of crayfish in the journals of explorers Lewis and Clark, and thought his work was done, but the reference wasn’t of the creature in question. Hampton and his mentor, Susan Adams, Ph.D., published a paper on their research, which can be found here: https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wat2.70014

Beth Ellinport is an ORISE research program participant at the US Army Corps of Engineer's Engineer Research and Development Center Environmental Laboratory, where her research helps drive data-driven decision-making under uncertainty. We think of the Army Corps of Engineers in relation to dredging waterways and building levies, locks and dams but there is much to consider for those projects and others, including impacts on downstream communities, employees and search-and-rescue crews. Ellinport is part of a team that helps bring more certainty to the process.



Ellinport says she was drawn to the field of crisis and risk management because she lost someone close to her in an incident that involved a huge urban search, rescue and recovery mission. She saw first responders put their lives at risk to help others. Her ultimate goal, she says, is to be able to help others, which she does every day.



When her ORISE fellowship ends, Ellinport plans to pursue a doctoral degree in industrial and organizational psychology. She wants to look through the lens of uncertainty and resilience, recovering and adapting to unknown and known threats, from the perspective of the people impacted. “Can our employees and our circles of support maintain function when they are also receiving disruption themselves.



Learn more about Ellinport here: https://orise.orau.gov/people/success-stories/2025/beth-ellinport.html

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is something most people interact with every day, even if they don’t realize it. Maps apps, the predictive text you see when you’re writing an email or document, or the ad you get served on social media because you searched the web for something. While useful in our daily lives, AI is also beneficial in the classroom. As this episode is posted, students and educators from around the country are about to compete in the finals of the Presidential AI Challenge in Washington, D.C. In this episode of the ORISE Featurecast, Michael Holtz is joined by guest co-host Natasja Brown. Together they have a great conversation with Dr. Ann Schwartz, an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship alum, and Kyle Kuhlers, a current AEF Fellow. Join them for an interesting and inspiring conversation.



Dr. Ann Schwartz is the Director of Emerging Tech Workforce Impact Fellow with the Maryland Department of Labor in the Office of the Secretary. Previously, she was the Assistant Director for Research Infrastructure in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) where she revitalized the development of the National Strategic Computing Reserve and led the US Delegation at the G7 Conference for Large Research Infrastructures. Previously, Ann was the Director of the Computing Community Consortium bridging computing research and policy. She began her work in policy as an Einstein Fellow at the National Science Foundation working on Computing Education and Workforce, building on her prior experience as a high school math and computer science teacher. Ann received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, her Master’s Degree in Secondary Education from George Washington University and her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from George Mason University.



Kyle Kuhlers has taught business and computer education for 22 years in rural and urban Iowa high schools, the last seven years at Waterloo Community School District in the Waterloo Career Center. The last four years have been exclusively Information Technology and Cybersecurity education. Before teaching, Mr. Kuhlers was an IT professional for 6 years at Oral-B Laboratories toothbrush manufacturing facility. He has a BBA from the University of Iowa in Finance and Marketing, along with teaching certifications in Business Education, Information Technology Endorsement, and Computer Science Endorsement. In 2023, Mr. Kuhlers completed the University of Louisville National Cybersecurity Teachers Academy Certification, which included 12 graduate credit hours of learning over two summers.



The Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Act gives the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) the responsibility for managing the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship. The DOE Office of Science’s Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) manages this program for DOE in collaboration with the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) and the partnering Federal agencies, which, at the time of this recording, included the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Library of Congress (LOC), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the US Geological Survey (USGS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The DOE sponsors five placements in congressional offices.



To learn more about the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship, visit https://science.osti.gov/wdts/einstein.

Maggie Mangas is a former ORISE Research Program Participant whose fellowship was with the Health Research Services Administration (HRSA) Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program. Mangas was excited about the opportunity to develop her quantitative research skills. Her background includes conducting qualitative research. Mangas was drawn to the ORISE fellowship because she saw an opportunity to be in a government setting, along with this data training component. She says her mentor was fantastic about creating an environment to hone her desired new skills. Hear more about Mangas’s ORISE experience, some of the projects she was part of, and how she became interested in science.



Read more about Mangas here: https://orise.orau.gov/people/success-stories/2026/maggie-mangas.html