[1][2][3] From 1993 to 1997, Prabhakar served as the 10th Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the first woman to hold the position.

[4][5][6] Prabhakar served as 20th Director of DARPA (United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) from 2012 to 2017.

[7] Prabhakar's family immigrated to the United States from New Delhi, India, when she was three;[8] her mother was seeking an advanced degree in social work in Chicago.

[9] At the age of 34, Prabhakar was appointed as head of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a position she held from 1993 to 1997.

[18] Prabhakar was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford 2017–18.

[19] In 2019, she started Actuate, a nonprofit organization focused on issues including climate change and chronic diseases.

[24] Prabhakar is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and was named IEEE Fellow in 1997 for "leadership in partnering between industry and government to promote economic growth through the development of manufacturing technologies for semiconductor devices".