Amar Risbud

Amar Risbud grew up in San Jose, CA, developing an interest in marine biology after frequent childhood trips to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and an interest in physics from an early age through seeing his father work in electrical circuit design in the Silicon Valley. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from UC Berkeley in 2016, also working as a research assistant on a particle physics project (ATLAS) and a project aimed at non-invasive retrieval of audio from historical recordings using novel optical methods (IRENE) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. As an assistant on this latter project, he had the exciting opportunity to study recordings made by Dallas police during the JFK assassination, and was able to help conclude that the magnetic tape versions created in the 1980s had the same total length as the audio extracted from the original dictabelts, making the possibility of tampering or doctoring unlikely.

This project showed him the exciting range of research possibilities within the field applied physics, and inspired him to pursue projects characterized by a meeting of disciplines. In graduate school, he found the perfect opportunity to synthesize his interests by studying the predator perception of cuttlefish camouflage through the use of hyperspectral imaging and artificial neural networks at the University of Chicago, earning his PhD in biophysical sciences in 2022.

In his free time, Amar enjoys watching horror movies, playing the drums, and learning to cook Thai food. When he was living in Chicago, he was also involved in the sketch and improv comedy scene, performing at the iO Theater and Second City. He also has a sweet little cat named Paulie, who helps him keep a level head in the midst of all his research and hobbies.