Shyam M Saladi, PhD about me...

I (he/him/his) am a biophysicist and engineer excited about using large-scale computation to solve problems in the life sciences. I love all things data, programming, visualization, and generally computer-related.

I am on-leave from my academic studies to help fight the pandemic using my skills as a benchtop scientist and engineer with Neelyx Labs by making low-cost, high-volume COVID-19 RT-PCR testing and genome sequencing widely available to the community.

I am a NSF graduate research fellow at Caltech where I am focused on developing computer-driven methods to streamline the experimental process of biochemistry research. Bil Clemons and I aim to increase efficiency at the lab-bench by helping scientists design more tailored experiments. On the side as member of the Early Career Advisory Group, I join eLife on their quest to rethink how research is communicated, in part, by considering how software tools can improve the quality of scientific output.

As an undergraduate at Illinois, I explored the physiology and evolution of ion channels with Claudio Grosman and Eric Jakobsson and obtained my bachelor's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Molecular and Cellular Biology.

In my spare time, you might find me trialing a new espresso, hiking the natural landscapes of California, or pulling apart electronics.


In the spirit of healing, I acknowledge that Chicagoland, the place of my upbringing, sits on the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa as well as the Menominee, Miami and Ho-Chunk nations. It was also a site of trade, travel, gathering and healing for more than a dozen other Native tribes and is still home to over 100,000 tribal members in the state of Illinois. Learn more about this and other indigenous land in North America.