Congratulations to Professor Vatsan Raman, who has been named as the first S.C. Fang Professor. The professorship, which provides $90,000 annually over five years, was established to support a faculty member in the University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Biochemistry who is advancing human health and wellbeing by conducting innovative basic research related to metabolism.
The S.C. Fang Professorship, founded by Marie F. Chiang (’63 MS, ’66 PhD), is awarded to faculty who have displayed exemplary scholarship, entrepreneurial spirit, and leadership – qualities that Chiang’s late father, the professorship’s namesake, demonstrated throughout his life. Fang Shui Chow ran a large textile business in Hong Kong.
Raman, who joined the department in 2015, takes a systems and synthetic biology approach to understanding and engineering biological systems. His research explores the effects variations in proteins and bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) have on disease-relevant genes, uncovering possibilities for diversifying treatment of infections and diseases that arise from genetic mutations. His work, for example, would allow physicians to combat bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics, using potent synthetic bacteriophages.
Raman has won numerous prestigious awards and fellowships, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) New Innovator Award (2018), the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award (2023), and the H.I. Romnes Fellowship (2024).
Chiang completed her doctoral work in the UW–Madison Department of Biochemistry, advised by Professor Howard Rassmussen. She established the S.C. Fang Professorship in recognition of the impact that her time as a doctoral student in the Department of Biochemistry had on her life.
“It is a great honor to receive this professorship,” says Raman. “This will help my laboratory pursue bigger, bolder questions toward scientific discoveries that may benefit society.”