Nirmala Kandadai is an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Oregon State University. She completed her Ph.D. at The University of Texas at Austin in 2012 studying the interaction of high-intensity laser with molecular gas clusters. She was a laser scientist at National Energetics and led her team in designing and building high-power ultrafast laser systems, including the front end of a 10 PW laser system for the European Union’s Extreme Light Infrastructure Beamlines facility (ELI-Beamlines). She was in Boise as a research assistant professor in 2016 and as a tenure-track assistant professor since 2019.

Kandadai started the IEEE WIE Boise section in 2020 and was the chair of the IEEE WIE Boise section from 2020 - 2022. She was awarded Idaho accomplished under 40 award in 2022 for her work in promoting young girls and women in STEM.

She moved to Oregon State in 2022 as an assistant professor. At Oregon State, she is the director of the Fiber Optics Laser and Integrated Research Lab. Her current research work includes laser-matter interactions, sensors for extreme environments, infrared thermography, thermal conductivity, laser sintering, and plasma modeling. She is currently an IEEE senior member.