Dr. Amit Lal

Biography

Amit Lal is the Robert M. Scharf 1977 Professor at Cornell University in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1990 and completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1996. His doctoral research was conducted at the Berkeley Sensors and Actuators Center in the area of ultrasonic MEMS. He previously served as an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before joining Cornell. Over his career, Lal has been credited with more than 30 patents and has published over 190 research papers in the field of microsystem engineering. He has also held the position of Program Manager at the DARPA Microsystems Technology Office from 2005 to 2009, where he managed various programs in low-energy computation, bio-robotics, and atomic microsystems. Lal’s research involves developing integrated microsystems using micro and nanoscale fabrication techniques, focusing on applications like Gigahertz Ultrasonic chip-scale communications and sensing, near-zero power IoT sensors, and ultrasonic inertial sensors. He also contributes to various technical committees and has received multiple awards for his work, including the NSF CAREER Award and the Department of Defense Exceptional Service Award.

Research Interests