Five exceptional women scientists, one from each continent, received the 2011 L’Oréal—UNESCO For Women in Science Awards at a ceremony on March 3 at UNESCO Headquarters. The day before, on March 2, 15 women post-doctoral researchers—three from each continent—were presented with the UNESCO- L’Oréal International Fellowships for Women in Science.

V. Durruty & P. Guedj for the L’Oréal Corporation Foundation—Prof. Jillian Banfield, Prof. Vivian Wing-Wah YAM, Prof. Faiza Al-Kharafi, Prof. Anne L’Huillier, Prof. Silvia Torres-Peimbert (top to bottom, left to right)

The Laureates of the 13th Annual L’Oréal-UNESCO 2011 For Women in Science Awards are:

Africa and Arab States: Professor Faiza Al-Kharafi, Professor of Chemistry, Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait—For her work on corrosion, a problem of fundamental importance to water treatment and the oil industry.

Asia / Pacific: Professor Vivian Wing-Wah YAM, Professor of Chemistry and Energy, The University of Hong Kong, China—For her work on light-emitting materials and innovative ways of capturing solar energy.

Europe: Professor Anne L’Huillier, Professor of Atomic Physics, Lund University, Sweden—For her work on the development of the fastest camera for recording events in attoseconds (a billionth of a billionth of a second).

Latin America: Professor Silvia Torres-Peimbert, Professor Emeritus, Institute of Astronomy, Mexico City University (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico—For her work on the chemical composition of nebulae which is fundamental to our understanding of the origin of the universe.

North America: Professor Jillian Banfield, Professor of Earth and Planetary Science, of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, and of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, United States—For her work on bacterial and material behaviour under extreme conditions relevant to the environment and the Earth.

An International Awards Jury presided by Professor Ahmed Zewail, (1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry) selected the laureates, who each received US $100,000. The Awards, recognizing work that addresses major challenges in modern science, were presented by the Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova and the Chairman of L’Oréal Corporate Foundation Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones.

The 2011 For Women in Science International Fellows each received up to US$40,000 over two years to help them pursue research outside their countries of origin (the list of winners can is here).

This year, celebrating the Marie Curie Nobel Prize Centennial, a new Special Fellowship ‘in the footsteps of Marie Curie’ was awarded to a former recipient of a For Women in Science International Fellowship who, through her outstanding career over the past 10 years, incarnates the future of science. The first ‘Special Fellowship’ goes to biotechnologist Marcia Roye (Jamaica), a Fellow in 2000 for her research on geminivirus, a crop-destroying insect-borne virus.