Her research interests include design and analysis of algorithms, algorithmic game theory and mechanism design, and combinatorial and stochastic optimization. She is also interested in networking (specifically, applications of game theory in networking) and machine learning. Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin faculty in August 2006, Chawla earned her Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University. Between completion of her Ph.D. and joining UW, Chawla spent six months doing a postdoc at Stanford University and six months doing a postdoc with the theory group at Microsoft Research, Silicon Valley. Chawla's undergraduate studies were at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. During the 2013-14 academic year, she spent a sabbatical at the University of Washington and Microsoft Research Redmond.