The Department is delighted to recognize the 2026 awardee of the The Elizabeth Wagner Scholarship.

Kavya Kudalkar earned the award to complete research in the lab of Dr.Christin Burd.  Her research project focuses on the mechanism by which miR-24 regulates the p16INK4a tumor suppressor in stimulated T cells. Kavya has presented her work in several venues, including our 2026 open house.

Kavya says "I am particularly excited about the translational impact of this research and its applications in cancer treatment and toxicity management. My network of mentors and professors have built extremely supportive environments which allow me to grow as a student researcher, a role that will surely prepare me for a future in medicine."

This award was  funded by the The Elizabeth Wagner Scholarship fund.

Elizabeth Wagner was born in 1912. She earned her bachelor’s degree at OSU in 1933, putting herself through school with a scholarship and a job washing dishes in the cafeteria. She then earned a master’s (1934) and a Ph.D. (1936) in plant physiology, publishing works on the effects of insecticides and inert dusts on bean plants and on yellow coleus. She went on to marry geneticist Sheldon C. Reed, and together they were pioneers for the use of Drosophila in population genetics studies, as well as becoming early proponents of genetic counseling.

Dr. Wagner Reed also published works investigating the effects of sexism on women scientists including a study on the productivity and work of 70 female scientists, and a book entitled American Women in Science Before the Civil War. This work informed her mentorship of younger women through the group Graduate Women in Science.

The  Elizabeth Wagner Scholarship fund was endowed in 2002 by  her son William Reed of Seattle. Consider supporting the fund here.