UCSB Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Sumita Pennathur has been selected to receive a prestigious Young Faculty Award (YFA) from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the central research and development agency for the U.S. Department of Defense.

The YFA program supports revolutionary research ideas proposed by young non-tenured faculty members. The ideas are expected to be of critical value for future technology developments by the Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) at DARPA. Professor Pennathur received the award for her research entitled "Harnessing Electrokinetic Energy for Efficient Energy Generation."

Professor Pennathur joined the Mechanical Engineering Department in 2007 as Assistant Professor. She received her MS and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and Stanford in 2001 and 2006, respectively. Professor Pennathur's research interests involve the development of nanofluidic channels for both bionanalytical and energy applications.