L’Oréal For Women in Science March 2009 bulletin

11 March, 2009
L’Oréal bulletins, Women in Science

In this bulletin:

Applications open 1 April for this year’s L’Oréal Australia For Women in Science Fellowships

Applications for the 2009 L’Oréal Australia For Women in Science Fellowships will open on 1 April 2009.

The Fellowships are open to early career women generally no more than five years past their PhD, excluding periods of maternity leave.

  • Further details including instructions, full eligibility criteria, and a link to the online application form (from 1 April) can be found at www.scienceinpublic.com/loreal

Nominations for the 2010 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards have opened. Please note that this is a closed nomination process, all nominations are made by an international network of scientists and winners selected by a jury.

Nominations for the 2010 UNESCO- L’ORÉAL International Fellowships will open in March.

The International Fellowships are worth US$40,000 over two years and are available to female doctoral and post-doctoral scientists under 35 years old with a focus on Life Sciences to study at an institution outside Australia. Three of the 15 International Fellowships will be awarded in the Asia-Pacific Region, which includes Australia.

Please note that applications for the International Fellowships are coordinated by the Australian National Commission for UNESCO at the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade.  Applications close on 30 June 2009.

2009 Laureates to be awarded their prizes in Paris in March

Five of the world’s women leaders in science each received the $US100,000 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards For Women in Science at a ceremony in Paris recently.

The Award ceremony was part of a week-long celebration of women in science.

The winners showcase a diverse range of scientific specialties reflecting this year’s “Physical Sciences” theme, from materials science and nanotechnology to astronomy.

The five Laureates include:

§  Africa & the Arab States: Tebello Nyokong, Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Rhodes University in South Africa, for her work on harnessing light for cancer therapy and for environmental clean-up.

§  Asia-Pacific: Akiko Kobayashi, Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry, College of Humanities and Sciences at Nihon University in Japan, for her contribution to the development of molecular conductors and the design and synthesis of a single-component molecular metal.

§  North America: Eugenia Kumacheva, Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto in Canada, for the design and development of new materials with many applications including targeted drug delivery for cancer treatments and materials for high density optical data storage.

§  Europe: Athene M. Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory in the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, for her work in unravelling the mysteries of the physics of messy materials, ranging from cement to starch.

§  Latin America: Beatriz Barbuy, Professor at the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, for her work on the life of stars from the birth of the universe to the present time.

Further details on each winner can be found at www.forwomeninscience.com

They were chosen from nominations made by a network of almost 1000 members of the international scientific community. A jury of 17 eminent scientists led by 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recipient Professor Ahmed Zewail selected the final winners from the shortlisted applicants.

2009 International Fellow will be based in Australia

Malaysian medical microbiologist Yean Yean Chan has received a UNESCO-L’Oréal International Fellowship to support a research project at the University of New South Wales.

Yean Yean-who is currently completing a PhD at the Universiti Sains Malaysia-will spend six months in Professor Justin Gooding’s laboratory in the School of Chemistry.

Her project there will focus on developing a DNA-coated electrode that can be used to rapidly detect tiny amounts of DNA from bacteria or viruses in blood and other body fluids.  Ultimately, Yean Yean hopes to develop faster and cheaper diagnostic devices for infectious diseases based on this technology.

The International Fellowships are awarded to 15 early stage researchers allowing them to pursue research at a host institute outside their country.

Update on 2008 Australian Fellows

Amanda Barnard

Amanda has accepted a position to lead CSIRO’s new Virtual Nanoscience Laboratory in Clayton, Victoria. Her new research team will study the environmental stability of nanoparticles, and link it with studies on toxicity and human health in collaboration with the Nanosafety Theme leader Maxine McCall.

She was recently awarded the JG Russel Award by the Australian Academy of Sciences, recognising her successful application for the ARC QEII Fellowship as one of the best for 2009, as well as RMIT’s 2008 Alumnus of the Year Award. Amanda also gave a keynote speech to young scientists attending the National Youth Science Forum in January.

Amanda’s work has been progressing quickly, with several publications in press and some promising data to analyse.

Natalie Borg

Natalie has been busy trying to get her DUBLIN protein-which has been officially renamed MUL1, short for mitochondrial ubiquitin ligase activator of NFκB-made in various kinds of cells, so that she can use protein crystallography to look at the shape of the protein and how it interacts with other proteins.

Angela Moles

Angela is busy planning a field trip with her new PhD student to sample mistletoes and their hosts in locations from Sydney to Broken Hill. On the way, she will be talking with students and involving them in the sample collection as part of her involvement with the Australian Institute of Policy and Science’s Tall Poppy Campaign.

She has several publications in press, has been invited to present her work at conferences and seminar series both locally and overseas, and recently received a JG Russel Award from the Australian Academy of Sciences recognising her ARC QEII Fellowship.

Erika Cretney

Erika has had two papers published on her regulatory T cells research and another on its way.

She presented her research findings at three conferences last year including: a plenary talk at the International Conference on regulatory T cells and Clinical Application in Human Diseases conference in Beijing; and local presentations at the 16th Annual Conference of the Immunology Group of Victoria; and the Australasian Society for Immunology’s annual conference in Canberra.