Shankar Balasubramanian

Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry
University of Cambridge

Sir Shankar Balasubramanian FRS is an Indian-born British chemist and the Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is recognised for his contributions to the field of nucleic acids. He is a scientific founder of Solexa and biomodal (formerly Cambridge Epigenetix).

Sir Shankar Balasubramanian was born in Madras (now Chennai) India in 1966 and moved to the UK with his parents in 1967. He grew up in a rural area just outside Runcorn in Cheshire and was educated at Daresbury (primary) and Appleton Hall High School (secondary). He is married to Veena Krishnan, a general practitioner, and they have two children, Sachin and Sashi. He did his undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge (1985-88) and then carried out a PhD under the supervision of Professor Chris Abell (1988-1991). He travelled to the USA as a SERC/NATO Research Fellow and worked in the group of Professor Stephen J Benkovic at Pennsylvania State University (1991-1993). He started his independent academic career in 1994 at the University of Cambridge and has remained there ever since. He currently holds a joint appointment between the Clinical School and Department of Chemistry. He directs research laboratories in the Department of Chemistry and the CRUK Cambridge Institute at the Addenbrookes Biomedical Campus.