We are excited to announce the appointment of Shyam Visweswaran, MD, PhD, to an Endowed Faculty Position.
The University of Pittsburgh awards endowed chairs to recognize faculty members who have achieved eminence in their field through outstanding contributions to research, scholarship, and mentorship. These prestigious appointments, granted by the Chancellor based on the recommendation of the Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health Sciences, signify both national and international recognition in a given discipline.
Effective February 1, 2026, Dr. Visweswaran has been appointed as the UPMC Endowed Chair in Biomedical Informatics within the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He joins Dr. Gregory F. Cooper as a recipient of an endowed chair in the department; Dr. Cooper was the inaugural holder of the Endowed Chair. Dr. Visweswaran will also continue his responsibilities as Interim Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics.
Trained in artificial intelligence (AI), biomedical informatics, and clinical neurology, Dr. Visweswaran’s research focuses on AI-enabled clinical decision support, ethically grounded clinical algorithms, patient-specific modeling and causal discovery from complex biomedical data, research data warehousing, and ontology development. He was recruited in 2007 by Dr. Michael Becich, the founding chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics. Since then, Dr. Visweswaran has provided exceptional leadership in various roles, including as the Associate Director of the Biomedical Informatics Training Program, the Biomedical Informatics Program Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program, the informatics representative to the Intelligent Systems Program, the Director of the Biomedical Informatics Core director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and the Vice-Chair of Clinical Informatics. He has co-led several key national informatics programs, including the All of Us Research Program and the Evolve to Next Gen ACT (ENACT) network. Moreover, he established the Center for Clinical Artificial Intelligence (CCAI) within the department, focusing on the development, implementation, and evaluation of AI-based clinical decision support.
Based in large part on his research accomplishments in biomedical informatics, Dr. Visweswaran was elected as a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA), as a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (FAIDH), as a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (FACMI), and as a Fellow of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (FIAHSI). He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and delivered more than 100 presentations at local, national, and international venues. He contributed to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, serving as a member of the committee that produced the Consensus Study Report, “Rethinking Race and Ethnicity in Biomedical Research” (published 2025), and currently serves on the national Encoding Equity Inaugural Advisory Committee established by the Council of Medical Specialty Societies.
Beyond research, Dr. Visweswaran is a prolific collaborator, educator, and innovator. His collaborations have significantly enhanced the department’s research strength and promoted informatics and AI projects across medical specialties. He teaches in the Biomedical Informatics Training Program and the Medical Scientist Training Program, and developed a graduate course focused on AI applications in biomedicine. To date, he has mentored 7 PhD students and 3 MSTP students, as well as 4 postdoctoral fellows, all of whom have published in high-impact journals and presented at local and national conferences. His commitment to teaching and mentoring has been recognized with several accolades, such as the Hattie Becich Award for Best Teacher in the Biomedical Informatics Training Program, the Allen Humphrey Excellence in Mentoring Award, and the Medical Student Research Mentoring Merit Award.
In addition to his research contributions, Dr. Visweswaran is a productive innovator. He has co-founded two startup companies (Kvatchii, Ltd., UK, and READE.ai, Inc., USA) and is the Chief Medical Officer of a third startup company (ThetaRho, Inc., USA). Through these initiatives, he leads efforts to advance the application of informatics and AI methods for precision guidance at the point of care.
Congratulations to Dr. Visweswaran on this prestigious and well-deserved appointment. His dedication and vision will undoubtedly continue to elevate the department, shaping the future of health and healthcare by transforming vast and complex biomedical data into actionable knowledge.