The winners of the 2010 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards were announced on 14 October 2009.
The five Laureates are:
- Africa & the Arab States: Rashika El Ridi, Professor at Cairo University in Egypt, for paving the way towards the development of a vaccine against the tropical disease Schistomiasis/Bilharzia.
- Asia-Pacific: Lourdes J. Cruz, Professor at the Marine Science Institute at the University of the Philippines Diliman in the Philippines, for the discovery of marine snail toxins that can serve as powerful tools to study brain function.
- North America: Elaine Fuchs, Professor at The Rockefeller University in the United States, for her contributions to our knowledge of skin biology and skin stem cells.
- Europe: Anne Dejean-Assémat, Professor at the Pasteur Institute in France, for her contributions to our understanding of leukaemia and liver cancers.
- Latin America: Alejandra Bravo, Professor at the Institute of Molecular Microbiology of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma in Mexico, for her work on a bacterial toxin that acts as a powerful insecticide.
The Laureates will receive their awards, which will include a US$100,000 prize, on 4 March, 2010 at a ceremony in Paris.
They were chosen from nominations made by a network of almost 1000 members of the international scientific community. A jury of 18 eminent scientists led by Professor Günter Blobel, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1999, selected the final winners from the shortlisted applicants.
Professor Blobel said: “For a dozen years, the L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards have recognized and promoted exceptional women who, by the excellence of their research, contribute to the advancement of science. As we announce the laureates of the 2010 Awards, we are very proud to note that two laureates of the 2008 Awards will receive 2009 Nobel Prizes. The L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards laureates are among world’s best scientific talents and will serve as role models for the future of science.”
Past recipients have included three Australians:
Elizabeth Blackburn, 2007 Laureate for North America
Jennifer Graves, 2006 Laureate for Asia-Pacific
Suzanne Cory, 2001 Laureate for Asia-Pacific
For more L’Oréal Laureate information: http://www.forwomeninscience.com