Sunil Bhave

Sunil Bhave, Ph.D., joined DARPA in August 2023 as a program manager in the Defense Sciences Office.

His DARPA research focuses on pioneering innovative microelectomechanical systems (MEMS) to advance sensor technology and computing performance towards the fundamental limits of physics, chemistry, and thermodynamics. His research interests also include quantum-classical correlations and their use as hybrid sensors; atomic-layer perfection in manufacturing of classical mesoscale devices; radio front ends that think and act at lightning speeds; and breaking the non-recoverable expense bottleneck for defect-free manufacturing of wafer substrates. The MEMS systems being developed in Bhave’s portfolio aim to provide pervasive positioning and navigation capability for the warfighter.

Bhave has been a faculty member at Purdue University since 2015. There, he leads the OxideMEMS Lab which explores inter-domain coupling in opto-mechanical, spin-acoustic and atom-MEMS devices.

Among other distinctions, Bhave is the recipient of the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society’s Walter G. Cady Award (2023); the Google Faculty Research Award (2020); the IEEE Ultrasonics Young Investigator Award (2014); the DARPA Young Faculty Award (2008), and the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program Award (2007).

Education

• Ph.D., Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley
• B.S., Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley