Dr. Mittal is the David S. Holmes Professor of Brain Science at Northwestern University. He serves as the Director of the Institute for Adolescent Mental Health and Well-Being and the Chair of the Department of Psychology. 

He holds an appointment in Weinberg College’s Department of Linguistics as well as the Departments of Psychiatry and Medical Social Sciences in Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. He is on the faculty of the Northwestern Intradepartmental Neuroscience Initiative (NUIN), Cognitive Science Program, and the Institute for Policy Research (IPR). He also serves as the Co-Director of the Institute for Developmental Science (DevSci) training core and is also a consultant at The Family Institute.

He conducted graduate training at Emory University, and completed a specialized adolescent serious mental illness internship and postdoctoral program at UCLA.  Dr. Mittal has published over 375 articles working to understand causes behind mental illness among adolescents and young adults, and he specializes in early identification, assessment and treatments for youth at high-risk for psychosis. He founded the Adolescent Research and Preventive Treatment (ADAPT) research lab to help these individuals and their families. This work has garnered large scale extramural funding from federal sources as well as a number of private foundations.

Mittal serves as the President-elect of the Society for Research in Psychopathology (SRP). He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science and Schizophrenia Bulletin, and has served as a standing member of the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) Adult Lifespan Psychopathology (ALP, formally APDA) study section.    

He has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Northwestern Faculty Honor Role, Emory Laney Distinguished Alumni Award, AT&T Research Chair, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) BRAINS award, Big Ten Academic Alliance Leadership Fellowship, Society for Research in Psychopathology (SRP) Early Career Award, Federation for Brain and Behavioral Sciences (FABBS) Early Career Award, and Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Independent Investigator Award.

Renee Engeln is a Professor of Instruction in Psychology and director of the Body and Media Lab at Northwestern University. She also serves as the Associate Director of the Institute for Adolescent Mental Health and Well-Being.

Prof. Engeln’s research focuses on body image and eating disordered behaviors in young adults. She also studies the psychological impact of beauty work on young women’s lives. She is the author of Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women. 

Prof. Engeln’s research has appeared in numerous academic journals and in the popular press. She is regularly interviewed by media outlets, including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Atlantic, Wired, Vox, and Rolling Stone. Her TEDx talk on “Beauty Sickness” has garnered over 850,000 views. 

At Northwestern, Prof. Engeln teaches courses on psychopathology, social psychology, the psychology of human beauty, and research methodology. An award-winning teacher, she has been voted to Northwestern’s Faculty Honor Roll for eight consecutive years. Graduating Northwestern seniors have selected her to deliver their “Last Lecture” multiple times. Prof. Engeln’s teaching has been recognized with both the Charles Deering McCormick University Distinguished Lectureship and the Weinberg College Alumni Teaching Award.