L’Oréal USA Honors Women in Science

This national awards program, created in 2003, supports the advancement of women in the sciences. Criterion included, among other things, an exemplarily commitment to the achievement and advancement of science, technology, engineering and math (S.T.E.M.) under the most promising post-doctoral female scientists across the country.This year’s ceremony was held at The Morgan Library and Museum in New York City.

The 2012 Fellows are working on breakthrough scientific research, which address critical global challenges that could aid millions around the world.

Their research include:

Christina Agapakis, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, synthetic biologist, is working to engineer new relationships between microorganisms that usually would not find each other in nature.

Lilian Childress, Yale University, New Haven, CT, physicist, is working in quantum optics the interactions between quantum states of light and mechanical motion.

Joanna Lynne Kelley, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, geneticist, is working in biological diversity and characterizing specific pathways that underlie adaptive change.

Erin Marie Williams, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, anthropologist, is working to understand human anatomy by looking at the tools of our early ancestors.

Jaclyn Winter, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, biochemist, is interested in chemical diversity of biologically active natural products.

Each Fellow receives up to $60,000 to continue their post-doctoral research. Additionally, the L’Oreal USA Fellowships For Women in Science offers professional development workshops for the 2012 Fellows to aid and support these five women to build networks with accomplished female leaders in corporate, academic, governmental and scientific fields. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) facilitates this program.

The L’Oréal USA Fellowships For Women In Science is a national extension of the global L’Oreal–UNESCO For Women in Science program, which, since 1998, has recognized 67 Laureates, two of whom received the Nobel Prize in 2009.The program has also awarded 864 Fellowships, which have been granted to young women scientists from 93 countries so that they can continue their research projects. The program has become a benchmark of scientific excellence on an international scale, revealing the contributions of these scientific women each year.