Rudi Fasan (he/his)
Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Chemistry
CPRIT Scholar
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Texas at Dallas
Office: NSERL 2.748
Lab: NSERL 2.422 and 2.440
Mail Stop: RL10
Rudi Fasan was born in Italy and studied Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Padua, where he received his undergraduate degree (B.S.) with the highest honors in 1999. After serving mandatory military service in Italy and Romania, he received a PhD degree in Bioorganic Chemistry (2001-2005) under the supervision of Prof. John Robinson at the University of Zurich (Switzerland), working on the design and synthesis of beta-hairpin protein epitope mimetics. In 2005, he joined Prof. Frances Arnold’s group at the California Institute of Technology as a Swiss National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow, working on the directed evolution of P450 enzymes for alkane oxidation. Rudi began his independent career as a member of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Rochester in 2008 and was promoted to the rank of Full Professor in 2018. In 2019, he became the inaugural recipient of the Andrew S. Kende endowed Chair in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. At the University of Rochester, he established and directed a NIH-funded T32 program in Chemistry-Biology Interface (CBI) and a NSF-funded Chemistry Research for Medicine and Energy Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program. In July of 2023, Dr. Fasan moved to the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he holds the position of Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Chemistry and CPRIT Scholar.
His awards include a Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2005-2007), the 2007 Friedrich-Weygand Outstanding Graduate Research Award, a Provost Multidisciplinary Research Award (2011), a University Research Award (2016, 2021), the 2014 Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, 2020 Goergen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the 2020 International Award for Creative Work from the Japan Society of Coordination Chemistry, and the 2023 Biotrans Young Investigator Award. He is a recipient of a Robert A. Welch Endowed Professorship and of a 2023 Established Investigator Award from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).