Sanjeev Kulkarni

Sanjeev R. Kulkarni is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton University in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Born in Mumbai, India, he earned B.S. degrees in mathematics (1983) and electrical engineering (1984), and an M.S. in mathematics (1985) from Clarkson University, an M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University (1985), and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1991). Kulkarni joined Princeton's faculty in 1991 as an assistant professor of electrical engineering, was promoted to associate professor in 1997, and became a full professor in 2004. He also serves as associated faculty in the Department of Philosophy.

His research focuses on statistical pattern recognition, machine learning, applied probability, nonparametric statistics, information theory, communications, wireless networks, sensor networks, signal, image, and video processing, adaptive systems, hybrid systems, control, econometrics, and finance. Notable publications include "Machine Learning Methods for Attack Detection in the Smart Grid" (IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, 2016), "Divergence Estimation for Multidimensional Densities Via k-Nearest-Neighbor Distances" (2009), "Distributed Learning in Wireless Sensor Networks" (2006), "A Deterministic Approach to Throughput Scaling in Wireless Networks" (2004), and "Convergence and Consistency of Regularized Boosting With Weakly Dependent Observations" (IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 2014). Kulkarni has received the NSF Young Investigator Award (1994), Emerson-Keyes Faculty Advancement Award (1994), Walter Curtis Johnson Prize for Teaching Excellence in Electrical Engineering (2002), SEAS Distinguished Teacher Award (2004), IEEE Fellow (2004), President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching (2007), and Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award (2009). In leadership roles, he was associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Engineering and Applied Science (2003-2005), master of Butler College (2004-2012), director of the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education (2011-2014), dean of the Graduate School (2014-2017), and dean of the Faculty (2017-2021), where he established the Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship Program and advanced faculty diversity hiring.

Professional Email: kulkarni@princeton.edu