Dr. Benjamin J. Mintz is the Director for the Interconnected Science Ecosystem (INTERSECT) Initiative at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The goal of the INTERSECT Initiative is to build and deploy a scalable system-of-systems environment that interconnects high performance computing, edge computing, data analysis, and experimental instruments to enable autonomous “self-driving” scientific experiments. As the INTERSECT Director, Ben oversees the initiative strategy, ensures research directly impacts the Department of Energy’s mission, conducts long-range program planning, and provides project leadership. Ben earned his PhD in Chemistry from the University of North Texas with a concentration in Computational Chemistry. He has more than 13 years of experience performing and leading research in fields ranging from chemistry to massively parallel computing to the development of autonomous system-of-systems technologies. Prior to joining ORNL, Ben spent 8 years at Lockheed Martin Skunk Work®, where he served as program manager for multiple Department of Defense programs funded by DARPA and multiple Air Force divisions.