Rate My Professor Indira Raman

Indira M. Raman is the Bill and Gayle Cook Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology at Northwestern University. She earned her PhD in neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Raman completed postdoctoral training at the Vollum Institute. She has held multiple appointments at Northwestern University, including serving as Director of the Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience (NUIN) PhD Program. Raman was appointed Chair of the Department of Neurobiology for a term beginning in 2023.

Raman’s research focuses on the ionic mechanisms of neuronal excitability, with emphasis on the biophysical properties of voltage- and ligand-gated ion channels, synaptic transmission, and cerebellar physiology. Her laboratory investigates how specific patterns of neuronal activity arise in cerebellar neurons, including Purkinje cells and cerebellar nuclear cells, and how these patterns contribute to motor control and learning. Key publications include work on sensorimotor integration in the cerebellar corticonuclear circuit (Neuron, 2018), control of locomotion by cerebellar nuclei neurons (eLife, 2018), and synaptic excitation in the cerebellar nuclei (Journal of Physiology, 2017). Raman has received numerous honors, including the NINDS Javits Award in 2014, the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence from 2010 to 2013, the Klingenstein Fellowship in the Neurosciences from 2001 to 2004, and the Searle Foundation Scholarship from 2000 to 2003. She has also been recognized with multiple teaching awards at Northwestern University, such as the Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2004.