91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó

Education

PhD, Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, 2015
B.Tech, Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, 2010

Areas of expertise

Physics of living systems · Organismal biophysics and biomechanics · Soft matter and active matter · Frugal science and global health technologies · Bio-inspired robotics

91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó interests

The Bhamla Lab plays at the intersection of physics, biology, and engineering, driven by curiosity about the puzzles hiding in plain sight. The first thread is the physics of life: we uncover extreme and ultrafast movements in organisms, from single cells that contract without ATP, to tangled worm blobs that behave as living active matter, to the collective dynamics of insects, sled-dog teams, and grazing herds. Each starts as a moment of surprise in the natural world; the work is to turn that surprise into rigorous mechanics, and rigorous mechanics into bio-inspired robots and materials.

The second thread is frugal science: we invent low-cost, open-source tools that expand access to science and healthcare at a planetary scale: a hand-powered paper centrifuge that costs 20 cents (Paperfuge), a 23-cent electroporator (ElectroPen/ePatch), and a $1 hearing aid for age-related hearing loss. This work spans global health, point-of-care diagnostics, and synthetic biology, and feeds directly into our education and outreach programs.

Selected honors

• Schmidt Polymath Award (2025)
• Moore Inventor Fellow (2024)
• DARPA Young Faculty Award (2024)
• NIH Judith H. Greenberg Early Career Investigator Award (2024)
• NIH R35 MIRA Outstanding Investigator (2021)
• NSF CAREER (2020)
• National Geographic Explorer (2019)
• National Academies Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communication (2023)
• TED Speaker and Idea Search Winner (2021)