The Department of Biotechnology, which is part of the Indian government’s Ministry of Science and Technology, has announced Professor Krishna Swamy of the School of Arts and Sciences as an awardee of the prestigious Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship. Professor Swamy started his research career in biology at the Molecular Biophysics Unit, IISc, where he developed algorithms for protein structure and function prediction. He then did his PhD in computational biology at the Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica, Taiwan in 2012. He transitioned into working as an experimental biologist at the Institute of Molecular Biology after receiving the prestigious Academia Sinica Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship, and worked on deciphering the molecular mechanisms underlying speciation, the evolution of complex traits such as fermentation and stress response and evolution of co-operation.

The Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship is for Indian nationals working overseas in various fields of biotechnology and life sciences who are interested in taking up scientific research positions in India. Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellows can work in any of the scientific institutions/universities in the country and are eligible for regular research grants through extramural and other research schemes of various S&T agencies of the Government of India. Professor Swamy teaches genetics, evolution and computational biology at the Biological and Life Sciences division of the School of Arts and Sciences, and has had an exciting multi-disciplinary trajectory during his career.