Madhavi Kadakia named interim vice provost for research at Wright State

Madhavi Kadakia has been named interim vice provost for research.

Wright State University cancer researcher Madhavi Kadakia, Ph.D., has been named interim vice provost for research effective July 1. She replaces Ellen Reinsch Friese, who is retiring.

“Dr. Kadakia brings significant experience and expertise to the position of vice provost for research,” interim Provost Oliver H. Evans, Ph.D., said in an email to the campus community.

Kadakia has served as chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology since 2015 and as associate dean of research affairs of the Boonshoft School of Medicine since 2019.

She joined the Wright State faculty in 2002 and was promoted to full professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2013. She also serves as the associate director of the Center for Genomics Research.

Before her appointment as chair, she served as director of the department’s master’s degree program from 2009 to 2014. Under her leadership, the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology established the Bachelor of Science Program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Kadakia is an internationally recognized cancer researcher with a history of federal funding. She has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and trained postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students.

Much of her research, with funding from the National Cancer Institute, has focused on the identification of signaling pathways that play a role in cancer and its development. A second major research area of focus has been identifying biomarkers that can help differentiate stages of cancer and potentially shed light on personalized treatments for patients. As a co-investigator on a multi-university research initiative, funded by the Office of Naval Research, Kadakia is involved in the identification of biomarkers associated with physical training.

She served as a co-organizer for the international scientific meetings and as a reviewer for the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense and numerous prominent scientific journals.

Kadakia also led the university’s Research Task Force during the coronavirus pandemic and was instrumental in bringing researchers back to campus. As interim vice provost for research, she will continue to work closely with all academic and administrative units across the university.

Kadakia completed the prestigious Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Fellowship Program for Women. She served as a visiting research scholar at Nottingham University and the Leicester Medical Research Council in the United Kingdom in 2011.

She has held several national leadership positions, including as a steering committee member on the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Research Advancement and Development committee, as a board member for the Dayton Veterans Affairs Research Foundation, and as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Medical and Graduate Departments of Biochemistry.

Kadakia received her Ph.D. in infectious disease and microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in microbiology from the University of Mumbai, India.

After earning her Ph.D., she completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and then conducted research at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey.