Breakthrough Technologies to Shape Our Future

Arati Prabhakar,  director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), will deliver a View From the Top lecture, “Breakthrough Technologies to Shape Our Future,” on campus  this Friday, February 13, 2015.

Prabhakar started at DARPA as program manager for advanced semiconductor manufacturing and flexible manufacturing in 1986. She founded DARPA’s Microelectronics Technology Office, which included managing projects in optoelectronics, infrared imaging and nanoelectronics.

In 1993, Prabhakar was appointed director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a 3,000-person agency that works across industries.

Four years later, Prabhakar moved to Silicon Valley and worked as a technology executive. From 2001 to 2011, she was a partner at U.S. Venture Partners, where she identified startup companies with growth potential.  She was appointed the director of DARPA in 2012.

Arati Prabhakar also serves on Berkeley Engineering’s Advisory Board. In 2013, she gave the college’s graduate student commencement address and said, “There is something special about Berkeley that I have always treasured, and that is the fact that it is a place that combines academic excellence with a public mindedness… Engineering is a good place to stand, and it is a particularly great place to stand to change the world.”