Ratmir Derda received his B.Sci. in Physics and Biophysics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 2001 and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2008, under the supervision of Laura L. Kiessling. From 2008 to 2011, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University working under the supervision of George M. Whitesides at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Donald E. Ingber, at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. His notable awards include:

2011 - Canadian Rising Star in Global Health award from Grand Challenges Canada
2010 - National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Award in Synthetic Biology
2009 - Winner of the 50K DARPA seed funding for best proposal in InfoChemistry
2007 - ACS Excellence in Graduate Polymer Science Research
2000 - ACTR/ACCELS excahnge student scholarship
1998 - George Soros Fellowship in Chemistry
1997 - Gold Medal at the XXIX International Chemistry Olympiad
1994, '95, '96, '97 - 1st Diplomas at the All-Ukrainian Chemistry Olympiads