Nirupama Bulusu is a Full Professor of Computer Science at Portland State University. She received her Ph.D degree from the University of California Los Angeles in 2002 under the supervision of MacArthur Fellow Deborah Estrin, and her B.Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (1997), both in Computer Science.

Her research and teaching interests lie in mobile and pervasive computing, applied machine learning, cybersecurity and Internet markets. Her current work focuses on leveraging mobile crowdsourcing in applying computing technologies to the realms of environmental sensing, urban planning and smart cities, electronic commerce and mobile health while safeguarding data integrity and user privacy. Previous work has focused on applied machine learning for sensor networks, applied to domains as diverse as tracking freshwater plumes in the Columbia River Estuary and monitoring invasive cane-toad populations in Australia.

Bulusu was amongst the foremost pioneers in sensor networks research. In the early 2000s, she led the development of the first wireless localization system for sensor networks, Her first paper on localization is among the top 5 most frequently downloaded articles of all time in IEEE Personal Communications. Her subsequent contributions include numerous highly cited publications on network localization; reimagining supply chains with blockchain; mobile participatory sensing; as well as widely used public domain software such as the DHV protocol; and the widely cited book, Wireless Sensor Networks: A Systems Perspective (Artech House, 2005). Her research has been cited over 10,000 times per Google Scholar, and garnered extensive media coverage, including from outlets such as MIT Technology Review, Wired Magazine and the Australia Broadcasting Corporation.

Her recognitions include the National Science Foundation CAREER award (2008), the Provost's Portland State University Foundation Faculty Development Award (2004), University of New South Wales GoldStar Award (2007), Sigma Xi honor society (2003), the IIT Madras Institute Merit Prize from IIT Madras (1993), and a best paper award at IEEE PerCom 2019. She was invited as a Distinguished Visiting Scientist by CSIRO Australia (2012), CRA Leadership in Science Policy and mHealth Summit Fellow (2013).    

She serves as an Area Editor for Elsevier Pervasive and Mobile Computing. Previously, she served as Editor for ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, as well as Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks. She has also served on the organizing and program committees of several premier sensor networks conferences including ACM SenSys, EWSN, IPSN, and DCOSS. She was the founding program co-chair and steering committee member for IEEE EmNetS workshop series.

A proponent of increasing and broadening participation in computer science, Bulusu created an interactive educational demonstration on sensor networks at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. She has served as a a featured keynote speaker at the Networking Networking Women (N2Women) meeting at ACM SenSys 2008, as a Computing Research Association (CRA) Distributed Mentor to female undergraduates, and as a Grand Awards Judge at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

Prior to joining PSU, Bulusu held professional appointments at the Oregon Health and Sciences University and National ICT Australia Limited. She has also been a Visiting Scientist at the University of New South Wales.