Santiago Schnell was appointed the William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science in 2021. As he has worked to prepare the scientific leaders of tomorrow, Santiago has expanded the postdoctoral program within the college, established the first rare disease patient advocacy degree in the country, and helped spearhead a joint life sciences initiative with the College of Engineering. Santiago is the interim director of the Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare & Neglected Diseases, and his research along the continuum of health and disease has led to several important discoveries. He is a fellow of The Royal Society of Biology, The Royal Society of Chemistry, The Royal Society of Medicine, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Santiago earned his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Research Interests
Santiago Schnell is a mathematical biologist who develops methods and models to obtain high-quality measurements with rigor, reproducibility, and robustness in the biomedical sciences. He is internationally renowned for his pioneering research, which has significantly advanced our quantitative understanding of enzyme-catalyzed reactions. His most notable achievement is the formulation of the Schnell-Mendoza equation, a streamlined method for determining the physical constants of enzymes in both basic science and clinical laboratories. Furthermore, he has made significant contributions to the foundational enzymological quantitative model of the Polymerase Chain Reaction, an indispensable technique in the fields of life sciences, medical diagnostics, and forensic science.