Arati Prabhakar has always been drawn to the edge of the known. From her early years as an electrical engineer to her tenure at the helm of DARPA, she has spent a lifetime navigating the liminal space where science meets bold ambition. When I photographed her at her gracious home on May 9, 2022, I found a setting that mirrored her intellectual curiosity: a telescope perched on the deck, aimed at the vast unknown.

Born in India and raised in Texas, Prabhakar was the first woman to earn a PhD in applied physics from Caltech. But her journey was never one of mere academic pursuit, she was an engineer with the soul of an explorer. She cut her teeth at DARPA in the 1980s, returned decades later to lead it, and brought that same daring spirit to Silicon Valley, where she shaped the trajectory of emerging technologies.

At the time of our conversation, she had been tapped to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), a role that would place her at the intersection of science and governance, helping shape the nation’s response to the defining challenges of the era, pandemic preparedness, climate resilience, artificial intelligence, and the stewardship of emerging technologies. Over tea, she spoke about DARPA’s approach, how it thrived on risk, demanding visionary thinking rather than incremental advances. She recounted her work fostering innovations in AI, microelectronics, and bioengineering, not as a detached observer, but as a true believer in the power of technology to reshape the world.

Our conversation drifted between policy, physics, and the delicate art of steering a country’s research agenda. At the heart of it all was a scientist who understood both the beauty and burden of responsibility that comes with wielding technological power. In that moment, framed by the quiet of her home, she was not just a scientist or a policymaker, she was a navigator of the future, peering through the lens of discovery, always searching for what comes next.