L’Oreal Foundation and UNESCO to felicitate five women scientists

L’Oreal Foundation and UNESCO will present the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science awards to five outstanding women scientists on March 19, 2014. A press conference will take place at 14 rue Royale in Paris with the five laureates and fifteen international fellows in attendance. It will reveal the findings of a report on the current status of women in science. Compiled by the Boston Consulting Group for the L’Oreal Foundation, the status report addresses the under representation of women in the scientific professions and underscores the fact that the situation has improved only slightly over the past ten years.

In the evening, at the Sorbonne in Paris the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science 2014 awards ceremony will be held in honour of the five laureates and fifteen international fellows. It will be presided over by Professor Guenter Blobel, Nobel Prize in Medicine. Irina Bokova, Director-General, UNESCO, and Jean-Paul Agon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, L’Oreal and Chairman, L’Oreal Foundation.

Candidates for the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards were nominated by a network of more than 1,000 international scientists. The five laureates were then selected by an independent jury chaired by Blobel and composed of twelve eminent members of the international scientific community.

Profiles

Award for: Neurobiology

Professor Brigitte Kieffer

Professor, University of Strasbourg, France; Research Director, Institut de Genetique et de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC), Illkrich, France; Scientific Director, Douglas Institute Research Center, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Named to the French Academie des sciences in December 2013, Kieffer is being honoured for her decisive work on the brain mechanisms involved in pain, mental illness and drug addiction. In 1992, she was the first to clone and isolate the gene for an opioid receptor in the brain that plays a key role in alleviating pain, a puzzle which scientists around the world had been attempting to solve for the previous fifteen years. Her findings led the way to new treatments for fighting pain, addiction and depression.

Award for: Immunology and Medicine

Professor Laurie Glimcher

Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA; Provost for Medical Affairs, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

The first woman dean of a medical school in New York, Glimcher is a worldwide pioneer and leader in the field of immunology. She is being honoured for discovering key factors involved in controlling immune response (T-bet) in allergies and in autoimmune, infectious and malignant diseases. Her findings are paving the way for the development of new treatments for allergies, asthma, multiple sclerosis, childhood diabetes and cancer.

Award for: Biophysics

Professor Cecilia Bouzat

Member of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires; Professor, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahia Bianca; Deputy Director, Institute of Biochemical Research of Bahia Bianca (INIBIBB), Argentina

Named a National Fellow by Argentina’s L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Jury in 2007, Bouzat is now an international leader in neurotransmitter pharmacology. She is being honoured for her contribution to our understanding of how brain cells communicate among themselves and with muscles. Her world-renowned discoveries enabled the identification of the communications problem between the brain and muscles that causes major neurological disorders. Bouzat’s work has opened the door to potential new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, depression and certain addictive behaviours.

Award for: Immunology & Medicine

Professor Kayo Inaba

Professor, Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Japan; Vice-President for Gender Equality and Director of the Center for Women Researchers, Kyoto University, Japan

The first female associate professor at Kyoto University’s Faculty of Science and deeply committed to bringing more women to scientific research, Inaba is being honoured for her critical discoveries concerning the mechanisms triggered by the immune system when it is faced with a threat such as a virus or bacteria or by abnormal cells such as cancer cells. Specialised in the study of dendritic cells, Inaba was the first scientist to prove that these cells could be treated outside the body and then reintroduced into the organism to stimulate immune system response. Her discovery marked a turning point in cellular therapy and has already led to a new type of anti-cancer treatment.

Award for: Biology & Plant Pathology

Dr Segenet Kelemu

Director General, International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), Nairobi, Kenya

The first women from her region to attend what was then Ethiopia’s only university, Kelemu is being honoured for her research on how micro-organisms living in symbiosis with forage grasses can improve their capacity to resist disease and adapt to environmental and climate change. Her work is providing new solutions for ecologically responsible food crop production, especially by local, small-scale farmers. After having studied in the US and worked in Colombia, she returned to Africa and is now at the heart of an impressive international scientific research network.

EP News Bureau – Mumbai