Angad P. Mehta has been promoted to associate professor and awarded tenure by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Mehta has also been designated by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences as an I. C. Gunsalus Scholar for 2026-2027.
Professor Emeritus I. C. Gunsalus provided an endowment for the development of the scholarship and teaching of young faculty members in the physical and life sciences. The designation is given annually to young faculty members in the physical or life sciences who exhibit exemplary scholarship and teaching. The honor comes with $10,000 unrestricted support for research and teaching.
His research interests are in the areas of synthetic biology, synthetic immunology and chemical biology. Mehta uses evolutionary observations to design synthetic biology approaches for answering fundamental molecular question in biological systems or for developing novel translational platforms for human health. Key areas of his research include directed evolution and synthetic immunology to combat emerging viruses, directed endosymbiosis for evolutionary studies and synthetic biology, and engineering selectivity in targeting cancer.
Professor Mehta earned his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University and did his postdoctoral work at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla. Professor Mehta joined the faculty at Illinois in 2019.