Administration

Reddys create Agricultural Sciences Trustee Scholarship

University Park, Pa. -- Through their longtime personal and professional involvement with Penn State, C. Channa and Usharani Reddy have seen firsthand the need for student financial support.

Most recently, the Penn State distinguished professor and head of the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences and his wife have given $50,000 to the College of Agricultural Sciences to endow a scholarship to assist undergraduates who have financial need. The award, named for the donors in honor of their generosity, gives first preference to students majoring in toxicology in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences.

This is the second Trustee Scholarship established in the college by the Reddys, who previously created an endowment to assist students majoring in animal bioscience. The couple also endowed the Usharani C. and C. Channa Reddy Senior Award in the Schreyer Honors College.

C. Channa Reddy came to Penn State as a postdoctoral candidate in the Department of Chemistry in 1975. He joined the veterinary science faculty in 1981 and in 1991 was named Distinguished Professor. He was director of the University's pathobiology graduate program from 1990 to 1995 and served as an interim head of the Department of Veterinary Science for two years before his promotion to department head in 1999. He also is the founding director of the Center for Molecular Toxicology.

Reddy's faculty research focuses on determining how antioxidant enzymes protect cells from oxidative damage, and he is an internationally recognized expert on prostaglandins and leukotrienes, compounds that are involved in the pathophysiology of many diseases.

In India, he earned bachelor's degrees in both science and education in chemistry and biology from the Regional College of Education in Mysore, a master's degree in biochemistry from Mysore University, and a doctoral degree from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

The Reddys split their time between homes in the State College area and their native India.  They have three daughters.

The Trustee Matching Scholarship Program is designed to keep a Penn State education accessible to all qualified students, regardless of their financial means. The program has a unique matching component-the University matches 5 percent of the principal of each gift annually and combines these funds with income from the endowment to effectively double the financial impact of the scholarship. Implemented in 2002 upon approval by Penn State's Board of Trustees, the program assisted approximately 4,600 students University-wide last year.

Last Updated March 19, 2009

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