Before coming to UCSD, Subramaniam was Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Chemical Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. The variousness of his academic appointments matches the catholicity of his interests. Indeed, Subramaniam embodies the talents of an entire team of modern biologists in a way that is entirely consistent with his view of biology's current outlook as a discipline. All of the sciences are becoming more information-driven than driven by startling experimental or field discoveries. The lab and the field have become places for the testing and confirmation of concepts developed by computational means.
Biology is in the forefront here because it is the least 'reducible' of the sciences.
Subramaniam was born near Madras in southern India, did his undergraduate work in physics at the University of Osmania in Hyderabad, and completed his northern migration and his doctoral degree in 1982 at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, the country's leading technological university. Learning biology has been a rewarding experience, and its delights seem inexhaustible. Subramaniam came to Illinois after several U.S. teaching appointments. A research profile of his work could be roughly divided into the areas of bioinformatics, protein structure, and molecular recognition. In that group and quite generally, a large segment of our community sees a shortfall of people educated in the competences required to support new kinds of biological research.