The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Ty Santiago a Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship starting August 2024 for three years.
The fellowship has two goals. It supports outstanding, early-career scientists by exposing them to research environments that maximize their development, and it broadens participation from members of underrepresented groups in math and sciences. The NSF selects postdocs who plan to continue these same efforts in future faculty positions.
Ty is a postdoctoral researcher in the Yan Lab at Yale. The NSF chose Ty because his proposed research on the hydration of DNA shows significant promise. It has the potential to demystify disease states and help scientists develop new types of drugs.
Understanding the role of water in the structure and function of DNA is important because diseases can develop when these structures are damaged or mutated. Defining this hydration process could help inform scientists as they design newer, smarter therapeutics that target DNA.
Ty’s research looks beyond DNA molecular structures to their hydration shells. He wants to better understand water’s role in controlling the binding process of DNA to proteins.
For this research, he will use a highly sensitive tool – chiral-selective vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy (cSFG) – to identify vibrational signatures distinct to the DNA structure. This research method expands upon work he’s previously performed in the Yan Lab.
The fellowship will allow him to travel to two labs – one in Japan and one in Germany – to learn more advanced cSFG techniques to implement in the Yan Lab here and, one day, his own.
Ty dreams of building his own spectroscopy lab, where he can teach and mentor students as they conduct exciting interdisciplinary projects.
“I like teaching,” he said. “I like doing the science, helping talented students, and watching them do the same experiments I was doing but do it better.
The value of teaching for me is taking something that might feel insurmountable to someone else and making it more manageable, empowering them to overcome it.”
And Ty is no stranger to overcoming the seemingly insurmountable.
He is a second generation Mexican American and the first generation in his family to attend college. He started working at 16 to help with family finances. Graduating high school was the extent of his parent’s expectations for him. So, he missed the conversation where one could be anything.
Yet, at each milestone – from community college to grad school – advisors would ask him, “What are you doing next?” enlightening him to the possibilities.
As he pursued his education, he continued working part-time jobs. His schedule was so brutal in undergrad that he was placed on academic probation and dropped out.
But he kept working and saving and came back. He participated in fellowships, presented at conferences, published papers, and eventually earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Buffalo. He persevered.
“If not for the many individuals in the world of academics that look for people like me and offer them a hand finding their way,” said Ty. “I would have most certainly fallen through the cracks.”
Ty’s gratitude for the people who have helped him has manifested into a passion for fostering the next generation of scientists. These days, instead of spending his free time working, he takes on speaking engagements where he shares his story about pursuing a career in STEM. He also helps with the department’s belonging efforts as a member of Yale Chemistry’s DEIB peer resource group.
“Ty is an inspiration. From community college to earning a Ph.D. in chemistry, he exemplifies that opportunities are available to those who are willing and capable,” said E. Chui-Ying Yan, professor of chemistry and Ty’s P.I. “The NSF postdoctoral fellowship will empower him to achieve his career goal of becoming a university professor.”
Learn more about the Yan Lab.