Robert White’s core expertise is in acoustic microsystems, microfabrication/MEMS, biomimetic sensing, modeling and design of sensors, and vibro-acoustic experimental techniques. He has been working on microfabricated devices since 1996, when he first joined an inertial MEMS group at Draper Labs while an undergraduate at MIT.  He conducted Ph.D. work on MEMS acoustic sensors and cochlear models at the University of Michigan.

Since 2005, White has been in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tufts University, where he received tenure in 2011. He runs a research group working at the intersection of micro- and nano-scale devices, acoustics, sensors, and aerodynamics. His key contributions to engineering science have been in acoustic microsystems, aerodynamic measurement technologies, and physical cochlear models. Dr. White’s research interests focus on micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), sensors, and actuators; microfabrication processes and materials; computational modeling of micro-electromechanical systems; microelectronics assembly and packaging and sensor system design. These interests are directed towards device development and engineering science in micro- and nano-technology, with an emphasis on acoustic sensing, wind tunnel instrumentation, and aerodynamic measurements, including planetary science.