Science in Parallel

Author: Krell Institute

Science in Parallel focuses on people in computational science and their interdisciplinary research to solve energy challenges, discover new materials, model medicines and more using high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence. Host Sarah Webb interviews researchers about their career paths and motivations. Our conversations cover topics such as integrating emerging hardware, the effects of remote work, the role of creativity in computing and foundation models in science. Our show is for curious, science-oriented listeners who like technology. You don't need a deep background in science and computing to learn from our guests. Science in Parallel has been shortlisted for the Publisher Podcast Awards: for 2022 Best Technology Podcast, 2023 Best Science and Medical Podcast and both categories in 2024 and 2025. It is produced by the Krell Institute and is a media outreach project of the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF) program.
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Genres: Science, Technology

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S6E9: Silvia Crivelli: Understanding Suicide Risk and Building a Foundation Model for Medicine
Episode 9
Wednesday, 12 November, 2025

Nearly a decade ago, the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Energy launched the MVP-CHAMPION initiative, not for sports, but as a data-driven strategy for improving healthcare outcomes for veterans and others. Silvia Crivelli of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory turned her skills in computational biology toward this new field, especially the problem of identifying veterans at high risk for suicide. As she and her colleagues worked on this challenge, large language models and the notion of foundation models emerged. Now her team is focused on a more comprehensive challenge: a foundation model for medicine and healthcare. You'll meet: Silvia Crivelli is a staff scientist in the applied computing for scientific discovery group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she's worked for more than 25 years. Her research applies artificial intelligence to medicine and healthcare with the goal of combining biomolecular and clinical data. She works on the MVP-CHAMPION research initiative between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Energy, focuses on precision medicine for veterans and the broader population.