Emil Kartalov was born in Bulgaria, Southeast Europe. He came to the USA in 1994 as a foreign student to matriculate in California Institute of Technology (Caltech), on a merit-based scholarship. Emil graduated from Caltech three times: B.S. in Physics in 1998, M.S. in Applied Physics in 2004, and Ph.D. in Applied Physics in 2004.

As an undergraduate in 1997, Emil helped discover two quasars by data digging in the Second Palomar Sky Survey, in Prof. George Djorgovski’s group at Caltech. Starting in 1998, first as a researcher and later as a graduate student in Prof. Stephen Quake’s biophysics group at Caltech, Emil developed microfluidic devices, single-molecule fluorescence microscopy methods, surface chemistry, and methods of DNA sequencing-by-synthesis.

In 1998, Emil obtained a green card through the DV program. In 2004, Emil became a US citizen.

Starting in 2004, as a postdoc at University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, he developed microfluidic techniques and devices for applications in biomedical diagnostics, point-of-care diagnostics, and cancer research, as well as microfluidic methods and devices for sensors and actuators.

In 2006, Dr. Kartalov won the prestigious K99/R00 Career Award from the National Institutes of Health. In 2008, he became Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, where his research group continued the work on microfluidic techniques for biomedical diagnostics.

In 2016, Dr. Kartalov moved to the Naval Postgraduate School to take a position as Associate Professor in the Physics Department, where his research group focuses on Navy-relevant applications of physics, such as artificial muscles, biofuel cells, and diver suits.

Emil has authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications and is an inventor on over 30 issued US patents, in a wide range of fields and applications, such as microfluidics, biotechnology, DNA sequencing-by-synthesis, bioassays, microfabrication, actuators, sensors, biomedical diagnostics, nuclear security, artificial muscles, diver suits, and biofuel cells.