PROMOTING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BETWEEN INDIA AND THE U.S.
Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering
Cornell University
Prof. Lal (BSEE Caltech 1990, Ph.D. Electrical Engineering-UC Berkeley 1996). He conducted his doctoral research at the Berkeley Sensors and Actuators Center in the area of ultrasonic MEMS. After working at University of Wisconsin-Madison as an assistant professor, he is now an associate professor at Cornell University, in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He holds 17 patents and has published >155 research papers in the area of microsystems engineering. He served as a Program Manager at DARPA in the Microsystems Technology Office, from 2005-2009. At DARPA he managed ten and started six new programs in the area of navigation, low-energy computation, bio-robotics, and atomic microsystems.
Professor Lal’s interests are in developing concepts and technologies leading to integrated microsystems using micro and nanoscale fabrication techniques. He directs the SonicMEMS Laboratory, which works on very diverse topics aimed at transforming the way world can be viewed. Topics such as (1) linear and nonlinear effects of ultrasound for microfluidics, (2) applications of radioactive thin films for power and lithography, (3) microprobes for surgery and bioinstrumentation, (4) nanoelectromechanical effects, (5) hybrid insect microsystems, (6) micromechanical solar energy, (7) and chip scale particle accelerators, are among the current foci of the group.