ESP Biography



SARITA THAKOOR, Retired Project Manager/Scientist



Major: Physics

College/Employer: Self Employed

Year of Graduation: 1972

Picture of Sarita Thakoor

Brief Biographical Sketch:

• A high caliber scientist of national and international reputation with extensive experience within the NASA/DoD domains and broad based project management skills in multidisciplinary technology R&D areas such as Micro-Device Technology, Autonomous Unmanned MicroFlyers Technology, Bioinspired Intelligence, Intelligent Systems, and Bio-Technology. A personal interest in Neurological Sciences and Cancer Biology with a deep motivation to prevent/control Cancer.
• Mentored as a private citizen, girlscout activities in the Bio-Engineering, Space Exploration, Renewable Energy, Solar Photovoltaics, Solar Energy Conversion areas and helped communicate the joy and sparkle of science to school students from 6-12 grades. Have always been committed to STEM education and science outreach and have mentored several postdocs, graduate/undergraduate students and school students



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

S591: Biology Inspired Revolutions: Flight on Mars! in Splash! Fall 2009 (Oct. 10 - 11, 2009)
With NASA, I was leading a project that was using inspiration from Biology/Nature to make revolutionary things happen. One such thing was to make flight on Mars possible by inspiration from insects and birds Mars has a very thin atmosphere which makes it hard to fly traditional airplanes up there for exploring it. I will describe to you creative ways by which attempts are being made, or can be made to make Mars/planetary exploration more feasible using bio-inspired ideas. The main focus of this class will be on showing you how Nature/Biology can inspire us to accomplish new solutions to problems that were very hard or impossible to do otherwise.