Professor of Engineering, Stanford
Innovation Fellow, Schmidt Futures
Expert, “Frugal Innovation”
Manu Prakash received a B.Tech. (2002) from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and a Ph.D. (2008) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a junior fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows (2008–2011) prior to joining the faculty of Stanford University, where he is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering, a member of the Biophysics Program in the School of Medicine and the Center for Innovation in Global Health, Faculty Fellow of Stanford ChEM-H, and a Senior Fellow of the Woods Institute for the Environment. Prakash runs a curiosity driven lab focusing on marine biophysics and frugal science; with focus on inventing and scaling up solutions for health, ecological and environmental challenges globally.
For the first time in human history, a new set of genomic tools can very possibly end pandemics before they begin. Yet realizing this possibility will require a different balance between incremental and moonshot approaches than exists today in our national research and development portfolio. Hear how investment in moonshot ideas now could transform our response to health crises in the future.