Professor Deblina Sarkar is among the recipients of the  Nano Research Young Innovators Awards in Bio-inspired Nanomaterials. Recognized for her potential to make a significant contribution in the field of nanotechnology, Prof. Sarkar is one of only four female researchers worldwide to receive this honor in 2023. Prof. Sarkar’s research fuses engineering, applied physics, and biology, advancing nanotechnology to address sustainable AI and life-machine symbiosis. 

Nano Research launched their Young Innovators (NR45) Awards program in 2018 to feature young researchers under the age of 45 in various fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology, in recognition of their distinguished accomplishments and/or potential to make substantial contributions to their fields. The NR45 awardees were selected through a competitive process by an award committee from the journal’s editorial board. All the awardees are invited to submit research or review papers that underwent a rigorous peer-review process. Nano Research publishes a Special Issue featuring each award cohort's work every year. 

Prof. Sarkar was selected for this award based on the two research directions in her Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek (NCB) research group at the MIT Media Lab:

• Sustainable AI: Tapping into quantum devices, spintronics, and neuromorphic technologies to advance nanoelectronic devices for the benefit of extreme energy efficiency, massive reduction in greenhouse gases, and sustaining the growth of AI;
• Nanomachine bio-hybrids: Fusing nanotechnology with biology to create wireless sub-cellular brain implants, a radical treatment for brain cancer, neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, and even addressing longevity.

Having achieved a perfect and rarely achieved impact score of “10," the highest score possible from the NIH, as well as the MIND Prize and The Distinguished Scientist Award, Prof. Sarkar's NCB research group has made strides in its pre-clinical studies, which replicate human disease phenotype. NCB’s technology shows promise in treating and preventing brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and providing radical treatments for brain cancers that currently have no cure. NCB is currently forging forward to clinical studies for translating their technologies to humans.

Addressing some of human-kind’s largest and most complex issues with nano-electronic devices that radically reduce energy and greenhouse gases, while enabling humans to transcend their biological limitations, are principle tenets of NCB’s research goals.