The Louisiana Beekeepers Association is excited to announce the scholarship award recipients for 2026.
Cynthia Ogbu, a PhD candidate with Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, received $5,000 from the LBA’s Honey Bee License Plate Scholarship Fund for her research topic, “Industrialization and Honey Bee Health in Louisiana: Connecting Trace Metal Exposure to Colony Survival, Physiology, and Resilience.” She will be looking at heavy metal accumulation in bees and hive products, trying to determine how exposure to heavy metals influences honey bee health in industrialized landscapes relevant to Louisiana beekeeping.
Dr. Alexandria Payne, a postdoctoral researcher with the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, received $5,000 from the Margaret Prell Memorial Fund to fund her research topic, “Breeding selection for reduced colony defensiveness via marker assisted selection.” Dr. Payne’s goal is to develop and test the first application of genomic marker-assisted selection (MAS) for a behavioral trait in honey bees and provide a practical genetic tool that helps breeders select for calmer, less defensive bees. By reducing defensiveness through MAS, she aims to make high-performing stocks such as the Russian honey bee more accessible and acceptable to commercial beekeepers.
Both scholarship award recipients will be working closely with researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Station Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics, and Physiology Research facility in Baton Rouge. Results from Ogbu and Payne’s research will be shared with Louisiana beekeepers at the 2027 LBA Annual Convention. We congratulate both winners and look forward to hearing about their research in 2027.
Applications for LBA’s scholarships may be submitted between January 1 and April 30 of each year. Scholarships are awarded in June. For more details on LBA scholarships or if you are interested in serving on the scholarship committee, please contact LBA members, Stacy Blomquist (fsbuglady@gmail.com) or Sammy Ramazani (mramazani2000@gmail.com).
