Venkatraman “Venki” Ramakrishnan (born 1952) is an Indian-born British-American structural biologist. He shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath for working out the structure and function of the ribosome, the molecular machine that makes proteins in every living cell. He works at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and was president of the Royal Society from 2015 to 2020.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Venkatraman Ramakrishnan |
| Born | 1952, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Field | Structural biology |
| Institution | MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge |
| Education | Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (B.Sc. Physics); Ohio University (Ph.D. Physics); University of California, San Diego (biology) |
| Spouse | Vera Rosenberry |
| Honours | Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009), Padma Vibhushan (2010), knighthood (2012) |
Early Life
Ramakrishnan was born in the temple town of Chidambaram. Both his parents, C. V. Ramakrishnan and Rajalakshmi, were scientists, and the family moved to Baroda (Vadodara) when he was three, where his father founded the biochemistry department at the Maharaja Sayajirao University. He studied physics there on a national science talent scholarship, having failed to get into the IITs or medical college.
Career
He went to the United States at 19 and took a doctorate in physics at Ohio University in 1976. Deciding that biology offered more interesting questions, he spent two years as a graduate student again at the University of California, San Diego.
As a researcher at Yale he began working on the ribosome, and he continued at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Utah. In 1999 he moved to Cambridge, taking a pay cut, because the laboratory there offered stable long-term funding. In 2000 his group published the atomic structure of the small (30S) subunit of the ribosome and showed how antibiotics bind to it, knowledge now used to design new drugs. His later work used cryo-electron microscopy to see the whole ribosome in action.
He received the Nobel Prize in December 2009. India gave him the Padma Vibhushan in 2010. As president of the Royal Society he spoke up for international collaboration in science after Britain voted to leave the European Union.
Books
Personal Life
He married Vera Rosenberry, an author and illustrator of children’s books, in 1975. He has a son, Raman, a cellist, and a stepdaughter. He holds British and American citizenship and visits India regularly to lecture.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Venkatraman Ramakrishnan born?
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was born in 1952, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India.
What honours has Venkatraman Ramakrishnan received?
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009), Padma Vibhushan (2010), knighthood (2012).
Featured image: Venki Ramakrishnan speaks at the Jaipur Literature Festival, 2025. Photo by Sriya Sarkar, licensed under CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
