Former Scholars Deepening Partnerships: Xan Chacko

Xan Chacko (India, Mahindra UWC India, Wellesley College ’05) is from a remote part of Kerala, a southern state in India. When she graduated from MUWCI in 2001, there were only five universities that were a part of the Davis UWC Scholars Program. She applied early to Wellesley, where she majored in Physics and Women’s Studies, rowed on the crew team, and represented the Wellesley Association of South Asian Cultures in the student Senate. 

After graduating from Wellesley, Xan worked in finance in New York for two years before moving to the UK to pursue a dual-masters in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine at Imperial and University Colleges, London. She worked in science communication for three years at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, creating gifted and talented masterclasses in Mathematics, a lecture series on plants that aired on the BBC (2009), and project managing the L’Oreal For Women in Science Awards (2010). 

Xan then moved to California to pursue a PhD in Science, Technology, and Society, which she completed in 2018. After earning her PhD, she had two postdoctoral fellowships; one at the University of Queensland, Australia, and another at her alma mater, Wellesley College. “Returning to Wellesley as a faculty member was a surreal and wonderful experience as many of my professors, who were still teaching, welcomed me back with open arms. I was also thrilled to reconnect with the Davis UWC scholars to whom I gave graduation addresses in 2021 and 2022.”

She currently serves as a Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) at Brown University. In that role she teaches courses and administers the undergraduate concentration in STS. Courses she teaches include, “Race, Gender, and Technology in Everyday Life,” “Invisible Labor in the Making of Science,” and “Gathering Hope, Stories for Earthly Survival.”

She is forever grateful for the Davis UWC Scholars Program and the opportunities it afforded her. Xan writes, “I had never considered applying to university in the US and would have remained in India after UWC if it were not for the Davis UWC Scholars Program. I owe my career and academic trajectory to the program and am forever grateful for the opportunity that it provided. UWC was my first big step towards broadening my horizons, but without the boost from the Davis Scholarship, I would not have reached launch velocity!”

This profile is part of the “Former Scholars Deepening Partnerships” series from the 2025 Annual Report.