In the late 1990s at Johns Hopkins University, Pradeep Ramulu, M.D., M.H.S., Ph.D., the Sheila K. West Professor of Ophthalmology, was working on his Ph.D. in biochemistry, and Kiran Rao Paramatmuni, M.D., was an undergraduate studying public health. They had a family connection — Ramulu’s mother, Aruna, is second cousins with Paramatmuni’s father, Kanta Rao — and they developed their own friendship while socializing with other students at one of the apartments near the medical campus.

“Kiran was very quiet, but also kind and polite,” says Ramulu, now chief of the glaucoma division at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine. He remembers Paramatmuni as being wise beyond his years, noting, “You knew he would be a really good doctor.”

Paramatmuni, who went on to specialize in infectious diseases, died in 2023 due to complications from a liver transplant. Although he ultimately studied medicine at a different institution, his parents, Kanta Rao and Vanaja, chose to support the Wilmer Eye Institute and Johns Hopkins in his name. A planned gift through their estate will establish the Kiran Rao Paramatmuni Rising Professorship and the Kiran Rao Paramatmuni Scholars Program at the Wilmer Eye Institute. Ramulu’s father, Yammanuru Ramulu, M.D., was instrumental in inspiring this gift, suggesting to the family that this would be an ideal way to honor Kiran.

“His parents chose Wilmer to execute the professorship in the name of Kiran Rao Paramatmuni to continue his legacy,” says Yammanuru Ramulu.

The rising professorship will support a faculty member with a primary appointment at Wilmer who holds a joint appointment at another Johns Hopkins University school. “These combinations of disciplines are rare,” says Pradeep Ramulu. “But there’s a great history of this work at Johns Hopkins, including work that bridges ophthalmology and Kiran’s focus of infectious disease.”

Kiran Rao Paramatmuni with his parents, Vanaja and Kanta Rao Paramatmuni

As an example, he cites his own mentor, Sheila West, Ph.D., Pharm.D., the El-Maghraby Professor of Preventive Ophthalmology, who has been a world leader in advancing the prevention of trachoma, an infectious disease that can lead to corneal scarring and blindness. She holds a joint appointment in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. Another example is the work of Kunal Parikh, Ph.D., who holds a joint appointment at the Whiting School of Engineering, involving leveraging nano-technology to develop better materials and drug delivery systems — which span a wide range of applications, from eye surgery to cardiovascular disease.

This gift will give a young faculty member with interdisciplinary expertise the resources to make similar large-scale contributions to the field.

“We are thrilled that this generous gift from the Paramatmuni family, bestowed in honor of Kiran Rao Paramatmuni, will empower our young investigators and their pathbreaking research,” says Ronald J. Daniels, J.D., LL.M., president of Johns Hopkins University. “This gift will support the connections between disciplines, divisions and schools that we know supercharge discovery and the sharing of knowledge across our One University.”