Preetha Ram

Dean Preetha Ram is the Assistant Dean of the Sciences in the Office of Undergraduate Education at Emory College, co-founder of Inquus Corp, and co-director of the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative^[1]. She also heads the Interdisciplinary Science Program for Integrating Science into Education (INSPIRE), Science Experience Abroad, Pre-Health Initiatives, and is the co-Dean for the Freshman year^[2]. Over the years at Emory she has founded several educational initiatives, such as the ChemMentors peer-to-peer learning program that has grown into the Supplemental Instruction model for Emory College and the International Research Experience for Science (IRES) fellowships.

Preetha Ram was born in Chennai, India. She grew up in a household with a younger brother and sister. Her father Rajagopalachari Parthasarathy, was a railway engineer, and her mother Choodamani, a homemaker.



She received a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemistry from Women’s Christian College in Chennai, India, later receiving a Master’s of Science in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi. She left for the United States in 1983 to pursue a PhD in Chemistry. Ram first enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she met her soon-to-be husband, Ashwin Ram. They married in 1984. However, she left Illinois for Yale University in 1984; she found the biophysical chemistry offered at Yale more exciting and a better opportunity to pursue her studies. She is currently in the process of getting her MEMBA from the Goizueta Business School.

Preetha Ram has been at Emory since 1989. A former chemistry professor, she has taught Introductory Chemistry, Analytical chemistry, and Physical chemistry. She is currently in her third year as Assistant Dean, and has been doing what she can to change and to bring innovation to Emory, especially in the sciences.



In addition to her duties as Dean for the Sciences, she is responsible for advising first-year and transfer students and for overseeing the Dual Degree program with the Georgia Institute of Technology.



Currently, her focus is on needs of students pursuing the Health Sciences. She believes that Emory's liberal arts tradition and the excellence and proximity of the health sciences schools at Emory offers a unique opportunity to develop a health sciences framework for the liberal arts education that Emory is well-known for. Ram initiated a copmosite letter process for Emory College in 2009 and is currently setting up an Office for Health Sciences Mentoring for Emory Undergraduates which will be the one stop shop for all pre-health students' advising needs^[3].



Ram believes that international experience abroad is a critical part of the college experience for all students, but most particularly science students^[4]. Ram pioneered the first science summer study abroad program at Emory, Chemistry Studies in Italy and has followed this with replicating the model in Neuroscience in France, Environmental Science and Biology in Australia, and Global Health in South Africa. This study abroad program has won the Best Practices in International Education Award in 2007^[5].

Ram is not afraid of controversy. She took on the challenge of bringing science and religion in close proximity through the Emory Tibet Science Initiative where she leads a team of faculty and monastics developing a science curriculum for Tibetan monastics^[6].

Most recently, she has cofounded an e-learning company, with a product, OpenStudy, that provides an online environment that facilitates peer to peer learning and collaboration. She is a member of Project Kaleidoscope^[7], an organization devoted to the improvement and sustainability of undergraduate programs in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

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