In Memoriam of Swati Tyagi, PhD

The Salk Institute community experienced a tragic event in June 2021 when a longtime member of our research community, Swati Tyagi, was killed while commuting on her bicycle in the Torrey Pines area of La Jolla. A person driving a vehicle struck her bike from behind causing a fatal accident. Tyagi is survived by her husband, Ashim Rai, and her son, Miransh.

An accomplished scientist who joined Salk in 2016 as a research associate, Tyagi received numerous recognitions for her outstanding work and was a recipient of the 2017 Salk Women & Science Special Award. Her most recent paper, “High-precision mapping of nuclear pore-chromatin interactions reveals new principles of genome organization at the nuclear envelope,” was shared with the scientific community in May 2021.

Swati Tyagi Memorial Fund
The Swati Tyagi Memorial Fund is being established to honor the memory, contributions and legacy of Swati Tyagi, PhD, with a $25,000 gift by longtime Salk donors Carol and John Gallagher. The fundraising goal for the Swati Tyagi Memorial Fund is $100,000 by June 30, 2022.

Swati Tyagi Memorial Award
The Swati Tyagi Memorial Award will contribute to Tyagi’s scientific legacy and advocacy for women in science by providing financial assistance and recognition to an early career female scientist at Salk. Recipients will be evaluated on their early career scientific pursuits as well as their efforts to raise awareness of women’s role in science. The award will be made annually in consultation with the Senior Vice President, Chief Science Officer and the Salk Women & Science Review Committee.

Remembering a Colleague
“She was one of the smartest postdocs I’ve ever had in my lab,” says Salk Senior Vice President and Chief Science Officer Martin Hetzer, who worked beside Tyagi and mentored her for years. Tyagi joined Hetzer’s lab in 2016 and was recently promoted to the role of staff scientist. Tyagi earned her doctorate from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Germany, and was pursuing research on the human genome. Her work was relevant to cancer, aging and neurodegenerative diseases.

Hetzer praises Tyagi for being good at everything, from conducting experiments to writing code to analyzing data, and bridging many different fields. He characterizes Tyagi as a generous person, a team player and “a true leader” who made the Hetzer lab the most cohesive and collaborative it had ever been.

“Her love and talent for science inspired us all,” he says. “We are now called on to retain and safeguard her legacy—for her young son, her husband and family, and the scientific community.”