Ishita Mukerji is Fisk Professor of Natural Science and a Professor in the Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department at Wesleyan University. She is a long time member and current director of the Molecular Biophysics Program. She investigates protein-DNA interactions using a variety of spectroscopic approaches. She has been honored with the National Science Foundation Career Development Award (CAREER, 1995) and received the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation Investigator Award (2001). Her research has also been funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. She was recently elected to be a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering and named a Woman of Innovation by the Connecticut Technology Council. She helped found the College of Integrative Sciences, which supports interdisciplinary scientific research and trains students in the skills needed to become future problem solvers and innovators. She is actively involved in promoting diversity in science at all levels; she established and directed the Wesleyan Math and Science Scholars program, which supports students from underrepresented groups pursue degrees in STEM fields. As director of the CIS, she created and developed the Inclusion in STEM website, an online repository and blog dedicated to STEM equity issues.
Currently, she is on leave from Wesleyan University and temporarily serving her community as a Program Director in Molecular Biophysics at the National Science Foundation.