September 26, 2022: The United States Senate  has  voted to confirm  India-born Dr Arati Prabhakar, as the next director of the White House  Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), making  her the first woman and immigrant, to serve in that role.
After a 56-40 vote, she will be President Biden’s Chief Advisor for Science and Technology, and a member of the US cabinet. He has  called her “a brilliant and highly-respected engineer and applied physicist."
Dr. Prabhakar’s first service to national security in the US started in 1986 when she joined DARPA, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency,  as a programme manager. She initiated and managed programs in advanced semiconductor technology and flexible manufacturing, as well as demonstration projects to insert new semiconductor technologies into military systems. As the founding director of DARPA's Microelectronics Technology Office, she led a team of programme managers whose efforts spanned these areas, as well as optoelectronics, infrared imaging and nanoelectronics.  Source: DoD
In 1993, President William Clinton appointed Dr. Prabhakar director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where she led the 3,000-person organization in its work with companies across multiple industries.
Dr. Prabhakar moved to Silicon Valley in 1997, first as chief technology officer and senior vice president at Raychem, and later vice president and then president of Interval Research. From 2001 to 2011, she was a partner with U.S. Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm. Dr. Prabhakar identified and served as a director for startup companies with the promise of significant growth. She worked with entrepreneurs in energy and efficiency technologies, components for consumer electronics, and semiconductor process and design technology.
Born in New Delhi and raised in Lubboc, Texas,  from age 3, Prabhkar attained a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University in 1979.  She received her Doctor of Philosophy in applied physics and Master of Science in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. She received her Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University. She began her career as a Congressional Fellow at the Office of Technology Assessment.