Elizabeth J. Kovacs PhD

Dr. Elizabeth J. Kovacs is a Professor and Director of Burn Research in the Department of Surgery at the University of Colorado Denver. She moved their recently from Loyola University Chicago where she was Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Surgery and Co-Director of the Burn & Shock Trauma Research Institute. She was also Founder and Director of the Alcohol Research Program at Loyola. She received her PhD from the University of Vermont and was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute’s Frederick Cancer Research Facility before joining the faculty of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor. Her laboratory is trained well over 100 researchers ranging from high school students to junior faculty many of whom have been funded by her grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Kovacs served in multiple leadership positions in scientific societies, including as President of the Society for Leukocyte Biology and Chair of the Committee on Public Affairs of the American Association of Immunologists. Research in the Kovacs laboratory focuses on the innate immunity. More specifically, ongoing studies are examining how advanced age, alcohol intoxication, and radiation exposure on localized and systemic inflammatory responses after injury or infection.