Professor Prakash leads a curiosity-driven research group focused on technological interventions in extremely resource-poor settings and tackling global public health problems. A physicist and a prolific inventor, his inventions include a 50-cent “print-and-fold” paper microscope, a $5 chemistry lab, a computer that works by moving water droplets in a magnetic field, and Oscan, a 3-D printed smartphone add-on that helps diagnose oral carcinomas responsible for 40% of cancer-related deaths in India. Professor Prakash has been distinguished as a Frederick E. Terman Fellow (2011-2013), a Pew Scholar (2013-2017), a top innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review (2014) and as one of the Brilliant 10 chosen by Popular Science (2014).