Anand Mishra, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering who leads the Robiotics Lab in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, has been selected for the March Faculty Feature.
A first-generation college student who grew up in a rural Indian farming village where his father worked in a utensil manufacturing company, Mishra has been fascinated by mechanics and how things work for as long as he can remember.
He credits an opportunity to build his first competition robot as a freshman mechanical engineering major at Uttar Pradesh Technical University in India with turning that lifelong curiosity into a passion for robotics.
Driven by a vision of harmony between technology and nature, he focused his doctoral research on soft bioinspired and biohybrid robotics at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy. In 2018, his contributions to the field earned him the Best PhD Thesis Award from the Italian National Bioengineering Group.
Soon after earning his doctoral degree in biorobotics, he moved to the United States to continue his research as a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University. He was promoted to faculty associate in 2023, a position he held until joining WVU in June 2025.
“I am grateful to be a part of a strong robotics community that emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration while fulfilling the land-grant mission to serve communities and industry,” Mishra said.
“WVU is continually reinventing itself and has clear ambitions for growth, creating a great deal of positive energy across campus. There is also a genuine sense of community here, and the welcoming atmosphere is something I find truly special,” he added.
In his lab, Mishra and his students explore the untapped potential of the natural world by merging biology with engineering — developing soft, lifelike agricultural, fungal-based and underwater robots to improve well-being and operate in hazardous environments.
This work moves beyond traditional machinery by using two methods: bioinspired robotics, which mimics nature through synthetic, rubber-like materials for increased agility, and biohybrid robotics, which integrates living tissues directly into the hardware to enable cutting-edge sensing and interaction with the environment.
“We are using plants and fungi as models for next-generation robotics that are softer and more adaptable than ever, a process that requires close collaboration with biologists, physicists, computer scientists and other engineers across campus,” he said. “By advancing bioinspired and biohybrid robotics, our students are tackling challenges in health care and agriculture while gaining the engineering skills needed for the future.”
Mishra also taught Dynamics of Machines last semester and plans to launch his own bioinspired soft robotics course in the fall.
One of his most rewarding achievements is a 2024 Science Robotics publication featuring a robot that uses fungal mycelium to control its movement, or what he refers to as giving it a “mushroom brain” to walk. He notes this project highlights his passion for using biological organisms to build sustainable, unconventional machines.
His research has also been featured by more than 100 worldwide news outlets, including CNN, the BBC and Forbes.
Watch the fungus-controlled robot.
While his publication is a significant milestone, he also takes pride in the perseverance that has shaped his journey as a first-generation student. He notes that it was grit, combined with support from his parents, that allowed him to overcome socioeconomic and cultural barriers in his country to pursue his education and build a distinguished 15-year career in robotics.
Mishra is currently looking forward to being reunited with his wife, Akanksha, and their 7-month-old daughter, Adishri, in Morgantown as they finalize their travel arrangements.
When he isn’t teaching or in his lab, he keeps busy cooking traditional Indian dishes and watching science fiction movies.
To nominate a faculty member for a future Faculty Feature, please send an email to enews@mail.wvu.edu.