Dr. Varma is a professor in the School of Public Administration and teaches graduate courses in research methods, public policy, and diversity management. She teaches a core undergraduate course, Technology in Society, for the School of Engineering as well.

Dr. Varma's research focuses on women and minorities in information technology, Asian immigrants in the science and engineering workforce, the management of industrial research, and professional ethics. Dr. Varma's research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Sloan Foundation. She is the author of Harbingers of Global Change: India's Techno-Immigrants in the United States (2006, 2007) and Managing Industrial Research Effectively (2006). Dr. Varma is an invited member of the Social Science Advisory Board of the National Center of Women in Information Technology (NCWIT) in the USA. She also served on the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Task Force on Job Migration in 2004-2005.