PeopleofSuperintelligence

Public voice

Arati Prabhakar

Arati Prabhakar is an engineer and public policy leader whose AI work reaches from White House policy to public research advocacy. She trained in electrical engineering and applied physics, led NIST and DARPA, built a Silicon Valley career, and founded Actuate. As White House OSTP director, she advised President Biden in writing an AI executive order; TIME named her to its 2024 TIME100 AI list. As of October 2026, she is a UC Berkeley Executive Fellow in Applied Technology Policy, making the case for public research and greater AI ambitions.

Works
9

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Photo of Arati Prabhakar

Timeline

  1. 1980–1993

    An engineer enters DARPA

    She earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from Texas Tech and an M.S. in electrical engineering and Ph.D. in applied physics from Caltech. In 1986, she joined DARPA as a program manager, working on semiconductor technology and flexible manufacturing before becoming founding director of its Microelectronics Technology Office.

  2. 1993–1997

    Opening a path at NIST

    She became NIST director in 1993 and was the first woman to lead the agency, serving through 1997.

  3. 1997–2011

    A Silicon Valley career

    In Silicon Valley, she held senior roles at Raychem and Interval Research; from 2001 to 2011, she was a partner at U.S. Venture Partners.

  4. 2012–2018

    Leading DARPA, joining Stanford

    She directed DARPA from 2012 to 2017 and then joined Stanford’s 2017–18 CASBS residential fellows class. At a CASBS panel, she spoke about AI, automation, and society.

  5. 2019–2022

    Turning ideas into Actuate

    She helped found Actuate in 2019 to develop technology addressing climate change, data privacy, and health care access. She served as its chief executive until she became OSTP director in 2022.

  6. 2022–2025

    Writing AI into policy

    As White House OSTP director from 2022 to 2025, she advised President Biden in writing an executive order on safe, secure, and trustworthy AI development and use.

  7. 2024

    On the TIME100 AI list

    She appeared on TIME’s 2024 list of 100 influential people in AI as a government official.

  8. As of October 2026

    Advocating from Berkeley

    She is a UC Berkeley Executive Fellow in Applied Technology Policy. Her work argues for publicly supported research and greater ambitions for AI.

Sources and credits

Photo: Executive Office of the President of the United States, via Wikimedia Commons. License: Public domain. Source: commons.wikimedia.org. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. APhMS in the 21st Century aphms.caltech.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Directors of the National Bureau of Standards and the National Institute of Standards and Technology nist.gov. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Meet the 2017-18 CASBS Class casbs.stanford.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Trailblazing Tech Leader Helps Shape U.S. AI Strategy spectrum.ieee.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Arati Prabhakar | UC Berkeley School of Information ischool.berkeley.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Anil Kapoor, Ashwani Vaishnaw among Times 100 Most Influential People in AI tribuneindia.com. Checked 14 October 2026.