Dev Mittar, Ph.D.
American Society for Microbiology
Dev Mittar, Ph.D., serves as the Scientific Director of the ASM Health Scientific Unit for the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). Dev plays a pivotal role in empowering the health-related microbial sciences community – including clinical microbiology, antimicrobial resistance, drug development, veterinary medicine/One Health and food microbiology – to shape the future of the field. Working closely with ASM’s CEO and volunteer leadership, Dev plays a key role in advancing ASM's strategic roadmap, positioning the organization as a global leader and empowering microbiologists to address today’s greatest challenges.
Prior to joining ASM, Dev served as a Health Scientist and Program Officer in the Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe) at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). At DRIVe, he oversaw a portfolio of programs that bridge academia and industry in the field of diagnostics, focused on advancing high-impact science, developing transformative products and driving innovation in health security. In this role, Dev gained deep insights into the research and innovation ecosystem, driving advancements in microbiology and spearheading initiatives like NGS-based diagnostics and digital health solutions for pandemic preparedness.
Before BARDA, Dev led microbiology R&D at ATCC, driving innovations in microbiome research, diagnostics and drug discovery and was previously a staff scientist at BD Biosciences, developing assays for flow cytometry and imaging platforms. Dev earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India and pursued postdoctoral training at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. His scientific and technical expertise covers product development, medical countermeasures, microbiome, infectious diseases diagnostics and genomics.