San Diego based Dr Adi Bulsara was conferred the Superior Civilian Service Award, the second highest award given to a civilian in the US, in June 2024. The senior research scientist retired after over four decades of association with the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific and its predecessor organizations when he was "technically an employee of the US government which is a bureaucratic monolith,” said Bulsara.
The NIWC Pacific laboratory at the tip of the peninsula is "huge,” conveyed Bulsara. It employs "a highly educated, diverse, multidisciplinary workforce of more than 5,200 computer scientists, electrical engineers, cyber engineers, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning scientists, technical specialists, contract managers and more… to tackle real-world problems facing the US today and in the future,” according to its website.
Dr Adi Bulsara and Superior Civilian
Service Award (below)
Even though he was not expected to wear a naval uniform nor did he have to teach, as a research scientist he was required to sit on committees. "As long as I could justify that the work I was doing would benefit the Navy in the next 10 years,” Bulsara was at liberty to pursue his field of interest. He could thus focus on his research and publications, organize and participate in conferences and establish collaborations, he mentioned in a video interview with Parsiana.
The Award commended his "groundbreaking research, leading significant scientific and technical advances and establishing international collaborations… with applications ranging from information transfer in neural networks and logic circuits, to signal processing in nonlinear detectors for advanced sensing and communication.” His seminal work in "Stochastic Resonance” has shown how noise in the form of irregular neural activity in the brain can be used to advantage. "This has opened a new avenue of understanding how neural behavior in the brain can be quite noisy while also being remarkably stable in function,” reads the citation accompanying the Award, quoted in a press note shared with Parsiana by readers Dinaz and Adi Tata.
"Our understanding of neuronal function in the central nervous system is imperfect; we don’t understand how the brain operates, and no comprehensive biophysical model of brain function exists,” said the researcher who has been trying to unravel the mystery. To help a layperson understand the concept of Stochastic Resonance, Bulsara shared a link that explained how "randomness can sometimes be a good thing.” Auditory signals, too weak to be recognized by a human ear, can be detected under appropriate conditions by adding a small amount of noise, thereby raising them above a "threshold” for detection. This research can be put to use in military, civilian and biomedical applications.
Its application for warfare, Bulsara preferred not to amplify since it comes within the sphere of "classified information” that he is not free to divulge. To give an idea, he stated how sensors embedded at regular intervals in an underground tunnel would help determine if it has been traversed. For civilian use, sensors mounted on traffic lights to detect flow of vehicles would trip when required or sensors fixed on parking slots would indicate when they are vacant. For medical application, sensors integrated into catheters help monitor patients during minimally invasive procedures. "If a sensor saves even one life, it would be worthwhile,” he believes. "Sensitivity is sacrificed when using extremely small sensors. Hence in practical applications smaller sensors (e.g. at micro/nano scales) are used to detect only very weak signals at close standoff ranges,” he explained.
Bulsara and his collaborators have 26 patents issued for their work: in the magnetic field, electrical field, non-linear field. "Some of them got licensed but when you are working for the government, the government gets to keep most of the money,” he smiled. Over the years he has received many patent and publication awards, including the Michael Kagan Award for the most outstanding patent. Five years ago he was elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, as stated in the citation summarizing Bulsara’s career growth.
Having authored nearly 250 publications in his field of specialization, Bulsara’s paper "Tuning to the Noise” had been featured on the cover of Physics Today in March 1996. A visiting science advisor to the Office of Naval Research (ONR)-Global in London and Tokyo, he has been given credit for finalizing important Navy collaborations with science centers of excellence in Sweden, England, Japan and Italy, cultivating partnerships with the University of Catania (Italy), the University of Perugia (Italy), Warwick University (UK), and the Sweden National Defense Research Agency. These collaborations have produced such novel devices as nonlinear piezoelectric energy harvesters (where oscillatory mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy), biomimetic (study of nature’s structures and functions to solve engineering problems) sensors and ultra-sensitive room temperature magnetometers (that measure magnetic fields).
Son of medical practitioners Roshan and Ratan Bulsara, Adi and his brother Pheroze had lost their father in their childhood. An alumnus of Bombay’s Campion High School and St Xavier’s College, Adi scored the highest marks at the Bombay University final BSc examination in 1970 after which he pursued MA in physics at Stony Brook University in New York, followed by a PhD in statistical mechanics under Nobel Laureate Ilya Prigogine at the University of Texas at Austin.
While he stays in touch with his group of Parsi friends from across the diaspora, Adi is not affiliated with any Zoroastrian association in the US. He stated that he does not practice the religion although he did think it important to teach the Zoroastrian navjote prayers to his son Cyrus who is now a chief information security officer at a medical institution, and daughter Nicole, a psychologist who conducts online group sessions for adults with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Wife Marcia who retired as a physiotherapist "probably knows more about our religion than I do,” acknowledged Adi. Married for the last 44 years, he appreciated that "she is quiet, cool, calm while I can be quite volatile and impatient.”
With his research interest now becoming a hobby, Adi has plans to resume work, "half time, in a different position, mentoring young scientists on how to research and publish technical papers as also pursue a new collaboration on Stochastic Resonance with a friend… I cannot sit still.”