Sandhya Srikant Visweswariah

Sandhya Srikant Visweswariah is a scientist and academic at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. She was the Chairperson of the Department of Developmental Biology and Genetics^[1] and the Co-chair of the Department of Bioengineering,^[2] Indian Institute of Science. She additionally holds the position of Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry,^[3] University of Bergen,^[4] Norway. Her research involves the investigation of the mechanism of signal transduction via cyclic nucleotides, phosphodiesterases and novel cyclases in bacteria.^[5] Most recently, she was awarded a Bill and Melinda Gates Grand Challenges Explorations Grant^[6] for her proposal entitled "A Small Animal Model of ETEC-Mediated Diarrhea".^[7][8]

Prof. Sandhya Srikant Visweswariah
Born	(1957-03-06) March 6, 1957 (age 68)
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Scientist/Academic
Academic background
Education	Ph.D.
Alma mater	Indian Institute of Science
Thesis	(1987)
Academic work
Discipline	Biology
Sub-discipline	Biochemistry, Cell Biology
Institutions	Indian Institute of Science
Main interests	Research on signal transduction mediated by cyclic nucleotides
Website	http://mrdg.iisc.ernet.in/sandhyav/index.htm

Education

Visweswariah completed her Bachelor of Science in 1977 at Osmania University,^[9] Hyderabad, majoring in Botany, Chemistry and Zoology. She then obtained a Master of Science degree in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1980. She proceeded to enrol at the PhD programme at the Department of Biochemistry,^[10] Indian Institute of Science and was awarded her doctorate in 1987.^[11]

Career

Visweswariah started her career as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Astra Research Centre, Bangalore in 1987-1988. After a year at the Astra Research Centre, she was promoted to a scientist position at the same organization, where she stayed on until 1993. In 1993, she was appointed as Assistant Professor at the Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics,^[12] Indian Institute of Science, where she has held a position since, being promoted to Associate Professor in 1995 and then to Professor in 2005.^[13] She is currently the Chairperson of the Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics,^[12] Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Co-chair of the Centre for Biosystems Science and Engineering,^[2] Indian Institute of Science. Over the course of 29 years as faculty at the Indian Institute of Science, Visweswariah has mentored more than 30 PhD students.^[14]

Membership in professional bodies and editorial boards

Visweswariah is a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy^[15] and the Indian Academy of Sciences: Third World Organisation for women in science.^[16] She is a life member of the Society of Biological Chemists (India),^[17][18] Indian Society of Cell Biology^[19] (1995–present) and the Society of Research in Reproduction, India (1994–present). Additionally, she is a member of Guha Research Council, India (1997–present), the Alliance for Cell Signalling^[20] (1997–present), the TB Structural Genomics Consortium, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology^[21] (ASBMB), and the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).^[22]

She serves an Associate Editor of Frontiers in Cellular Endocrinology.^[23]

Awards and fellowships

• Gold Medal in Botany, B.Sc. 1978.
• Indian National Science Academy Medal for Young Scientists, 1988.^[24]
• Awarded a Short-Term Associateship by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India^{[25][better source needed]} for a three-month visit to University of Missouri at Columbia, United States, 1998.
• Recipient of Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Short Term Fellowship (2002) to visit University of California, Berkeley in the laboratory of Prof. John Kuriyan.^[26][27]
• Awarded the Central Drug Research Institute^[28] Award for Excellence in Drug Research, 2005.^[29]
• Recipient of YT Thathachari Award 2009.^[30]
• Recipient of a Royal Society International Joint Project with Dr. Roger Buxton, National Institute for Medical Research, UK,^[31] London, 2008-2011.
• Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellowship,^[32] 2011-2012,^[33] spent at the lab of Dr. Sabine Ehrt,^[34] Weill Cornell Medical College,^[35] New York City, United States.
• AstraZeneca Research Chair Professor, Indian Institute of Science, August 2012 – 2015.
• JC Bose Fellow,^[36] 2013–present.
• Recipient of a Bill and Melinda Gates Grand Challenges Explorations Grant,^[6] 2014.^[7]
• In 2018, she became the fellow of TWAS .^[37][38]
• National Science Chair, SERB 2023-present
• Provost's Visiting Professor, Imperial College London (Sept 2023-Sept 2024)

Publications

Visweswariah more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals and 5 book chapters to her credit, with a total citation count of over 2000. The full list of publications from the Visweswariah lab can be found on PubMed^[39][40] and ResearchGate.^[41][42]