 |
| More than half of L'Oral's
researchers are women |
L'Oréal mobilizes
women's scientific talent
Paris, 26
March 2001 - Science
needs more women researchers. To encourage young women to pursue scientific
careers and to honour distinguished women scientists, the world's biggest cosmetics
company, L'Oréal runs a joint programme with Unesco - the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The L'Oréal-Unesco
"For Women in Science" awards and fellowships demonstrate practical
business support for the humanitarian goals of the United Nations in line with
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's Global Compact with business. The winners'
research focuses mainly on alleviating human suffering through medical innovation
or technologies that will increase food production.
The programme awards annual
prizes to women scientists who have achieved eminence in the fast-moving area
of life sciences and pushed outwards the frontiers of research. It also gives
10 young researchers - two from each continent - a helping hand in the form
of a cash grant to enable them to study in the country of their choice.
L'Oréal Chairman and Managing Director, Lindsay Owen-Jones, says: "Our
partnership with Unesco is bases on a shared conviction. We want to encourage
women everywhere in the world to take their rightful place in the scientific
field."
Farida Abou-Shady of Unesco adds : "With the awards and fellowships, L'Oréal
really does help us to do more and to encourage young women researchers in solving
development problems in the world."
A jury of 14 eminent scientists presided over by Christian de Duve, 1974 winner
of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, chose the five winners of the L'Oréal
2001 Awards out of a total of 137 entries. Each of these talented women received
a prize of US$20,000 at a glittering awards ceremony at Unesco headquarters
in Paris.
The award winners :
Suzanne Cory (Australia) is Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
of Medical Research in Melbourne, where she is pursuing research into understanding
the process of programmed cell death, which is at the origin of many cancers.
Her work has resulted in breakthroughs of great clinical importance for the
development of cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Adeyinka Gladys Falusi (Nigeria), has been studying molecular genetics
related to hereditary blood diseases such as alpha-thalassaemia and sickle cell
disease. Her research at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, has been instrumental
in opening the way to prevention of these diseases through prenatal diagnosis.
Anne McLaren (United
Kingdom) is among the pioneers of reproductive biology. Her studies have contributed
to
the development of in vitro fertilization and prenatal diagnosis. For more
than 30 years she has been committed to the debate on the ethical, social and
legal implications of assisted reproduction, both at national and at European
levels.
Joan Steitz (United
States) is Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale
University. Her research has brought to light the mechanisms of gene expression
and opened the way to the diagnosis of rheumatic and autoimmune diseases.
Mayan Zatz (Brazil)
Her subject is the genetics of hereditary neuromuscular diseases. In parallel
with her basic research, she tackles the social consequences of these diseases
by founding the Brazilian Muscular Dystrophy Association, which provides advice
and helps relatives of sufferers.
L'Oréal
Unesco
The
Global Compact