Himadri B. Pakrasi is the George William and Irene Koechig Freiberg Professor of Biology at the School of Arts & Sciences and professor of energy at the School of Engineering & Applied Science. He was born in Calcutta, India, and received undergraduate and graduate training in physics at the Presidency College and University of Calcutta.
He came to the U.S. to study biology and received a doctorate at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1984. He has been on the faculty of Washington University since 1987. Pakrasi is a biochemist recognized for his work on photosynthesis and, in particular, on membrane protein complexes in cyanobacteria and plant chloroplasts. He has a keen interest in bridging the differences between the biological and physical sciences, and leads large-scale multi-institutional systems biology projects.
Pakrasi currently directs Washington University’s effort to develop groundbreaking initiatives in the area of bioenergy. Pakrasi has been an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Munich University, Germany; a Distinguished Fellow at the Biosciences Institute, Nagoya University, Japan; and a Lady David Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Pakrasi serves as the Washington University ambassador from the McDonnell International Scholars Academy to Jawaharlal Nehru University.