Executive Mosaic is honored to introduce Arati Prabhakar, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, as an inductee into the 2016 edition of the Wash100 — Executive Mosaic’s annual selection of influential leaders in the government contracting arena.

Prabhakar started as director in July 30, 2012 at the U.S. military’s lead organization in the technology research-and-development arena.

She highlighted at the March 2015 Future of War Conference the agency’s efforts to develop new tools intended to counter the Islamic State militant group and other national security threats.

“We know as well that nation-states around the world are changing their military positions, their military capabilities, and with those shifts come the concern about an acute national security threat in the future that we want to deter and defeat if that becomes necessary,” she said.

Prabhakar also announced a plan last year to invest in research and development of big data, electromagnetic spectrum and maritime agility technologies during fiscal 2016.

DARPA hosted a three-day technology forum in September to present selected agency Risers and to make early-career scientists and engineers aware of opportunities to use their technical expertise in the national security field.

“Our job is to take the risk that is part and parcel of reaching for huge impacts and to do that work to advance national security capabilities in big ways, in fundamental ways,” Prabhakar said in her speech during the agency’s “Wait, What?” forum.

Prior to her current role, Prabhakar served as a partner at U.S. Venture Partners and also held leadership positions at Silicon Valley companies Raychem and Interval Research.

She is also a former director the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the first woman to hold that position in the agency’s history.

Earlier in her career, she worked at DARPA to manage programs and served as a founding director of its Microelectronics Technology Office.

Executive Mosaic congratulates Arati Prabhakar and the DARPA team for their selection to receive this award.