Triveni Rao is an Indian and American physicist and an expert on physics instrumentation. She is a senior physicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, [1] acting head of the Instrumentation Facilities Division at the laboratory, [2] and an adjunct professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University. [3]
Originally from India, [1] Rao completed a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Illinois Chicago in 1983, [4] [5] after also earning a master's degree there. [1] After working in industry for a year, she joined the Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1985. [4] [5]
Formerly the head of the Laser Applications Group at Brookhaven, [6] she subsequently became associate division head of the Instrumentation Division, [1] and then acting head of the Instrumentation Facilities Division. [2]
In 2023 she was funded by the Indian government by a Visiting Advance Joint Research Faculty Fellowship, for a visiting position at the Inter-University Accelerator Centre in Delhi. [7]
Rao's expertise involves instrumentation for high-energy physics, including photocathodes and photoinjectors, devices for turning laser pulses into high-intensity electron beams, as well as high-energy superconducting radiofrequency sources. [4] [7]
With David H. Dowell, Rao is the editor of the book An Engineering Guide To Photoinjectors, published as an open access work on arXiv.org. [8]
Rao was named as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, in the 2008 class of fellows, "for pioneering work on metal photo cathodes for high brightness RF injectors". [4]
In 2012, Rao was honored as a distinguished Asian American professional at the Stony Brook University Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration. [6]