Arati Prabhakar Nominated as White House OSTP Director

Arati Prabhakar, former director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and a previous Wash100 awardee, has been nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

If confirmed, Prabhakar will serve as Biden’s chief adviser for science and technology, a co-chair of the president’s council of advisers and assistant to the president for science and technology, the White House said Tuesday.

Biden said Alondra Nelson will continue to serve as head of OSTP and Francis Collins as acting science adviser while the Senate considers Prabhakar’s nomination.

Apart from leading DARPA, Prabhakar spent four years as director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where she helped push early-stage tech development efforts through the Advanced Technology Program and supported small and medium-sized companies.

She is the founder of Actuate, a nonprofit organization focused on developing new platforms to address challenges associated with information technology, data, health and climate. She spent more than a decade in Silicon Valley as a venture capitalist and as a corporate executive.

Prabhakar is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

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