Pankaj Mehta

Pankaj Mehta
Nationality	American
Alma mater	California Institute of Technology Rutgers University
Scientific career
Fields	Biophysics, statistical physics, theoretical ecology, systems biology, hard condensed matter theory
Institutions	Boston University Princeton University
Academic advisors	Natan Andrei, Ned Wingreen
Website	physics.bu.edu/~pankajm/

Pankaj Mehta is an American theoretical physicist whose research has involved biophysics, statistical physics, machine learning theory, and hard condensed matter theory. He is a professor of Physics at Boston University.

Mehta has worked on statistical mechanics tools in theoretical community ecology, biological information processing, and cell fate development models. In his work on theoretical ecology, Mehta has described consumer-resource models and statistical physics-based approaches to niche and coexistence theory. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Education and career

Mehta received a B.S. in mathematics from California Institute of Technology in 2000. ^[5] Mehta then received his PhD in physics from Rutgers University specializing in hard condensed matter physics in 2006 under the supervision of Natan Andrei. ^[5] He was a postdoctoral scholar at Princeton University's departments of molecular biology and physics where he worked under the supervision of Ned Wingreen from 2006-2010. ^[5]

In 2010, Mehta became an assistant professor in the Boston University department of physics, later receiving tenure in 2015. ^[5] At Boston University, he is a member of the Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences. ^[6] He is an affiliate faculty member of Boston University's Department of Biomedical Engineering, Center for Regenerative Medicine, and Biological Design Center. ^[7] He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. ^[8]

Honors

• Fellow of the American Physical Society, nominated by the Division of Biological Physics (2023), for "creative and impactful use of statistical mechanics tools in addressing a broad range of problems, from biological information processing and microbial ecology to machine learning theory." ^[8]
• Simons Investigator in the Mathematical Modeling of Living Systems (2014) ^[9]
• Scialog Fellow, Molecules Come to Life (2014) ^[10]
• Gerald and Deanne Gitner Family Innovation in Teaching Award (2014) ^[11]
• Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2011) ^[12]

Publications

• Mehta P, Wang CH, Day AG, Richardson C, Bukov M, Fisher CK, Schwab DJ (May 2019). "A high-bias, low-variance introduction to Machine Learning for physicists". Phys Rep. 810: 1–124. arXiv: 1803.08823 . Bibcode:2019PhR...810....1M. doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2019.03.001. PMC   6688775 . PMID   31404441.
• Mehta, Pankaj; Schwab, David (14 October 2014). "An exact mapping between the Variational Renormalization Group and Deep Learning". arXiv: 1410.3831 [stat.ML]. See Quanta and Wired magazines.
• Wenping Cui, Robert Marsland III, Pankaj Mehta (8 March 2024). "Les Houches Lectures on Community Ecology: From Niche Theory to Statistical Mechanics". arXiv: 2403.05497 [q-bio.PE]. From Les Houches School of Physics.
• Mehta, Pankaj; Schwab, David J. (October 8, 2012). "Energetic costs of cellular computation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 109 (44): 17978–17982. arXiv: 1203.5426 . Bibcode:2012PNAS..10917978M. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1207814109 . PMC   3497803 . PMID   23045633.
• Mehta, Pankaj; Goyal, Sidhartha; Long, Tao; Bassler, Bonnie L; Wingreen, Ned S (17 November 2009). "Information processing and signal integration in bacterial quorum sensing". Molecular Systems Biology . 5 (1): 325. doi:10.1038/msb.2009.79. PMC   2795473 . PMID   19920810.
• Fisher, Charles K.; Mehta, Pankaj (August 25, 2014). "The transition between the niche and neutral regimes in ecology". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 111 (36): 13111–13116. arXiv: 1308.2969 . Bibcode:2014PNAS..11113111F. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1405637111 . PMC   4246938 . PMID   25157131.
• Wenping, Cui; Marsland, Robert; Mehta, Pankaj (21 July 2020). "Effect of Resource Dynamics on Species Packing in Diverse Ecosystems". Physical Review Letters . 125 (4) 048101. arXiv: 1911.02595 . Bibcode:2020PhRvL.125d8101C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.048101. PMC   8999492 . PMID   32794828. See Physics (magazine).

References

1. Cepelwicz, Jordana (January 26, 2018). "How Math Can Help Unravel the Weird Interactions of Microbes". Wired Magazine .
2. Wolchover, Natalie (December 15, 2014). "AI Recognizes Cats the Same Way Physicists Calculate the Cosmos". Wired Magazine .
3. Popkin, Gabriel (October 13, 2020). "A Physicist's Approach to Biology Brings Ecological Insights". Quanta Magazine .
4. Wolchover, Natalie (December 4, 2014). "A Common Logic to Seeing Cats and Cosmos". Quanta Magazine .
5. "ORCID". orcid.org. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
6. "Pankaj Mehta | Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
7. "Pankaj Mehta | Center for Multiscale & Translational Mechanobiology". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
8. "APS Fellow Archive". www.aps.org. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
9. "Pankaj Mehta". Simons Foundation. 2017-08-17. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
10. Advancement, Research Corporation for Science. "Scialog® – MCL Team Awards". Research Corporation for Science Advancement. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
11. "CAS Physics Team Wins First Gitner Award | BU Today". Boston University. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
12. "Pankaj Mehta | Physics". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-23.