IU alumni Yu-Sheng “Victor” and Lin-Dee Liu created the Putnam Research Fellowship in 2013 to honor Victor’s faculty mentor, Frank Putnam, who served on our faculty for 23 years. The Liu family funded this fellowship via its Building Futures Foundation, which supports its charitable endeavors aiding educational programs in the U.S., China, South Korea, South East Asia, and Africa.

About Frank W. Putnam

Frank W. Putnam's early research focused on developing methods for determining the molecular structure of proteins. Later, he turned to the biology and chemistry of bacterial viruses, which led to his study of the Bence-Jones proteins.

He came to Bloomington in 1965 as professor of biology and director of the newly organized Division of Biological Sciences at Indiana University. During his term as director of the division, from 1965 − 1969, he set in place the overall organization that in the middle 1970s allowed the transformation of the division structure with multiple departments into the present unified Department of Biology. In 1974, Indiana University formally recognized Frank Putnam’s scientific accomplishments, as well as his service and teaching at IU, by his appointment as distinguished professor of molecular biology and biochemistry.

Putnam was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was an honorary fellow of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry. He also served as Secretary of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; was chairman of the Divisional Committee for Institutional Programs of the National Science Foundation; was a member of the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council of the National Institutes of Health, and was elected chairman of the Division of Biological Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. He also received the Sword of Hope Award from the American Cancer Society for his work in basic cancer research.