The laureates of the 12th Annual L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards For Women in Science received their prizes at a ceremony on 4 March at UNESCO, in the presence of Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, and Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones, Chairman of L’Oréal and of the L’Oréal Corporate Foundation.
The Laureates for the 12th award ceremony L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science 2010 are:
• Europe: Anne Dejean-Assémat (France) Director of the Laboratory of Nuclear Organisation and Oncogenesis at the Pasteur Institute, as well as the INSERM Research Unit of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Tumors, “for the elucidation of the molecular and cellular mechanisms at the origin of certain cancers in humans”.
• Africa & the Arab States: Rashika El Ridi (Egypt) Professor of Immunology, Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, “for paving the way towards the development of a vaccine against the tropical disease Schistomiasis/Bilharzia, which affects over 200 million people”.
• Asia-Pacific: Lourdes J. Cruz (Philippines) Professor at the Marine Science Institute at the University of the Philippines Diliman in the Philippines, “for the discovery of conotoxins produced by certain marine snails that can serve as painkillers and pharmaceutical probes to study brain function”.
• North America: Elaine Fuchs (USA) Professor, Laboratory of Cellular Biology, The Rockefeller University, New York, “for the discovery of stem cells and key processes involved in skin development, maintenance and repair”.
• Latin America: Alejandra Bravo Professor at the Institute of Molecular Microbiology of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma in Cuernavaca, Mexico, “for her understanding of the mechanism of a bacterial toxin that acts as an environmentally friendly insecticide”.
For the last 12 years, the Programme “For Women in Science” has highlighted women’s scientific excellence and encouraged young women to pursue scientific careers. Through this programme, L’Oréal and UNESCO aim to contribute to their recognition and provide them with the means to pursue their engagement.