L’ORÉAL-UNESCO FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL AWARDS 2022 AN EXCEPTIONAL CEREMONY TO CELEBRATE OUTSTANDING WOMEN SCIENTISTS 15 INTERNATIONAL LAUREATES AND 30 RISING TALENTS
Paris, June 3rd, 2022 – On June 23rd, the Fondation L’Oréal and UNESCO will be celebrating 45 eminent women scientists from over 35 countries and all regions of the world at an unprecedented For Women in Science International Awards Ceremony being held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
The past three years have been some of the most challenging for science in recent history. Women have been on the frontlines, addressing unparalleled issues related to climate change, disease, and health crises like the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite being essential to tackle today’s emergencies, female scientists are not yet sufficiently visible and numerous.
PARIS, INTERNATIONAL RALLYING POINT FOR FEMALE SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE
Starting on June 20th, the entire week will be dedicated to making Paris a rallying point for some of the world’s top scientific minds. A series of events will create interactions between these outstanding women scientists, including an Extraordinary Lecture at the Academy of Sciences and networking events, leading up to the Awards Ceremony at UNESCO on June 23rd.
In this special Ceremony gathering the laureates from the past three editions, 15 exceptional researchers will receive the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards in recognition of their outstanding scientific achievements in recent years, along with 30 young female scientists, selected in 2020 and 2022, who will earn the title of International Rising Talents.
COUNTERING THE SIDELINING OF WOMEN SCIENTISTS
According to UNESCO recent data, the number of women pursuing scientific careers is increasing slightly, only one in three researchers is a woman globally.[1] In the research world, the glass ceiling persists: just 14%[2] of senior academic positions in Europe are held by women and just 4% of the Nobel prizes in science have been awarded to women.
Alexandra Palt, L’Oréal Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer and CEO of the Fondation L’Oréal, said: “During the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen how women scientists are essential to respond to existential threats to our health, to society, to the planet. But still they are invisibilized and often face tremendous obstacles during their careers and research studies. This situation is the result of systemic barriers, unconscious bias, self-censorship but also discrimination. This is not just a problem for women: this is a problem for research. To be relevant, research has to be inclusive and needs all its talents to be mobilized.”
According to Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences of UNESCO: “Many of the rising female talents being celebrated this year are excelling in fields that will be vital to decarbonizing our future, such as energy storage systems, hydrogen fuel systems and quantum optics, a field of study which is paving the way for more energy-efficient computers. Yet many of their peers working in similarly strategic fields are not getting the recognition that they deserve. UNESCO, as the UN agency in charge of science, which has made gender equality a priority, is determined to act to put an end to these inequalities. The L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science partnership is a relevant example of positive action in this field, giving a voice and visibility to women scientists and to their achievements to meet the challenges of our century”.
Since its inception in 1998, the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science program has honored and supported 3,900 women scientists. It continues to lobby for these women to receive the recognition that they deserve. These brilliant female researchers have contributed significantly to their respective scientific fields and to finding effective solutions to some of the most pressing and urgent challenges that we face as a global society. This year’s celebration will be a way to acclaim them for their life’s work and the many obstacles they have overcome.
DISCOVER THE LAUREATES AND INTERNATIONAL RISING TALENTS CELEBRATED THIS YEAR
More information on these 45 women in science awarded by clicking on this link.
LAUREATES 2022
LAUREATE FOR AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES
Professor Agnès Binagwaho, PUBLIC HEALTH AND PEDIATRICS, Professor of Pediatrics and Vice-Chancellor of Global Health Equity University, Kigali, Rwanda
LAUREATE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Professor Hailan Hu, NEUROSCIENCE, Professor and Executive Director of the Neuroscience Center of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, China
LAUREATE FOR EUROPE
Professor Ángela Nieto, EMBRYOLOGY AND BIOMEDICINE, Professor at the Institute of Neuroscience (CSIC-UMH), San Juan de Alicante, Spain
LAUREATE FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Professor Maria Guzmán, INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND VIROLOGY, Director of the Research Center of the Pedro Kouri Institute (IPK), Institute of Tropical Medicine, Havana, Cuba
LAUREATE FOR NORTH AMERICA
Professor Katalin Karikó, BIOCHEMISTRY, Adjunct Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States of America, and Senior Vice President at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals, Philadelphia, United States of America
LAUREATES 2021
LAUREATE FOR AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES
Professor Catherine Ngila, CHEMISTRY, Acting Executive Director of the African Academy of Sciences, Former Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academic and Student Affairs (DVC-AA) at Riara University, Kenya, and Visiting Professor of Applied Chemistry at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa
LAUREATE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Professor Kyoko Nozaki, CHEMISTRY, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tokyo, Japan
LAUREATE FOR EUROPE
Professor Françoise Combes, ASTROPHYSICS, Professor and Galaxies and Cosmology Chair at the Collège de France in Paris, and Astrophysicist at the Paris Observatory – PSL, France
LAUREATE FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Professor Alicia Dickenstein, MATHEMATICS, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
LAUREATE FOR NORTH AMERICA
Professor Shafi Goldwasser, COMPUTER SCIENCE, Director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at University of California Berkeley, RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, United States of America and Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Weizmann Institute, Israel
LAUREATES 2020
LAUREATE FOR AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES
Professor Abla Mehio Sibai, MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES, Professor of Epidemiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
LAUREATE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Doctor Firdausi Qadri, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Senior Scientist, Head Mucosal Immunology and Vaccinology Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease and Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
LAUREATE FOR EUROPE
Professor Edith Heard, FRS, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Director General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany, Chair of Epigenetics and Cellular Memory at the Collège de France, Paris, France, and former Director of the Genetics and Developmental Biology Unit at the Institut Curie, Paris, France
LAUREATE FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Professor Esperanza Martínez-Romero, ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, Professor of Environmental Science at the Genomic Science Center, National University of Mexico, Mexico
LAUREATE FOR NORTH AMERICA
Professor Kristi Anseth, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Distinguished Professor, Tisone Professor and Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado, Boulder, United States of America
INTERNATIONAL RISING TALENTS 2022
AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES
Dr. Lina Dahabiyeh, BASIC MEDICINE, The University of Jordan, Jordan
Dr. Ndeye Maty Ndiaye, MATERIAL ENGINEERING, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal
Dr. Waad Saftly, PHYSICS, Al-Baath University, Syria
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Dr. So Young Choi, INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea
Dr. Van Thi Thanh Ho, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, Hochiminh City University of Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam
Dr. Pantana Tor-ngern, EARTH & RELATED ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Dr. Daria Smirnova, PHYSICS, Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy
of Sciences, Russia
EUROPE
Dr. Natalia Bruno, PHYSICS, National Institute of Optics of the National Research Council, Italy
Dr. Karolina Mikulska-Ruminska, PHYSICS, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland
Dr. Ieva Plikusiene, CHEMISTRY, Vilnius University, Lithuania
Dr. Beatriz Villarroel, PHYSICS, Stockholm University, Sweden
LATIN AMERICAN AND THE CARIBBEAN
Dr. Maria Florencia Cayrol, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Institute of Biomedical Research – UCA – CONICET, Argentina
Dr. Irene del Real, EARTH & RELATED ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, Austral University, Chile
NORTH AMERICA
Dr. Daphné Lemasquerier, PHYSICS, University of Texas at Austin, United States of America
Dr. Alison McAfee, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, University of British Columbia and North Carolina State University, Canada
INTERNATIONAL RISING TALENTS 2020
AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES
Dr. Laura-Joy Boulos, FUNDAMENTAL MEDICINE, Institute of Applied and Human Neurosciences (INSAN), Saint-Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon
Dr. Nowsheen Goonoo, MATERIAL SCIENCES, BIOMATERIALS, Drug Delivery and Nanotechnology Unit, Centre for Biomedical and Biomaterials Research, University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius
Dr. Nouf Mahmoud, HEALTH SCIENCES, Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology Laboratory, Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
Dr. Georgina Nyawo, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Clinical Mycobacteriology & Epidemiology (CLIME), Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Dr. Rui Bai, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Structural Laboratory, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
Dr. Huanqian Loh, PHYSICS, Center for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Dr. Mikyung Shin, MEDICAL ENGINEERING, Nature-inspired Biomaterial Engineering Laboratory, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
EUROPE
Dr. Vida Engmann, MATERIAL ENGINEERING, SDU NanoSYD, Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg, Denmark
Dr. Serap Erkek, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Cancer Epigenomics Laboratory, Biomedicine and Genome Center, Izmir, Turkey
Dr. Jennifer Garden, CHEMISTRY, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Dr. Cristina Romera Castillo, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Marine Biogeochemistry Laboratory, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar, Barcelona, Spain
Dr. Olena Vaneeva, MATHEMATICS, Department of Mathematical Physics, Institute of Mathematics of NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Dr. Paula Giraldo-Gallo, PHYSICS, Quantum Materials Laboratory, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
Dr. Patrícia Medeiros, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Laboratory of Biocultural Ecology, Conservation and Evolution Institution: Federal University of Alagoas, Maceió, Brazil
NORTH AMERICA
Dr. Elizabeth Trembath-Reichert, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, United States of America
ABOUT THE FONDATION L’ORÉAL
The Fondation L’Oréal supports and empowers women to shape their future and make a difference in society, focusing on three major areas: scientific research and inclusive beauty and climate action.
Since 1998, the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science program has worked to empower more women scientists to overcome barriers to progression and participate in solving the great challenges of our time, for the benefit of all. For 24 years, it has supported more than 3,900 women researchers from over 110 countries, rewarding scientific excellence and inspiring younger generations of women to pursue science as a career.
Convinced that beauty contributes to the process of rebuilding lives, the Fondation L’Oréal helps vulnerable women to improve their self-esteem through free beauty and wellness treatments. It also enables underprivileged women to gain access to employment with dedicated vocational beauty training. On average, around 21,000 people have access to these free treatments every year and more than 27,000 people have taken part in professional beauty training, since the beginning of the program.
Finally, women are affected by persistent gender-based discrimination and inequalities, exacerbated by climate change. While they are on the frontline of the crisis, they remain under-represented in climate decision-making. The Women and Climate program of the Fondation L’Oréal supports, in particular, women who are developing climate action projects addressing the urgent climate crisis and raises awareness of the importance of gender-sensitive climate solutions.