In partnership with
This booklet is brought to you by the AAAS/Science Business Office
Call for applications
2010 Unesco-L’Oréal
International Fellowships
CO NTENTS
Medicine and Disease
2 Common Passion for Common Good
by Sean Sanders
4 Changing the Face of Science
by Béatrice Dautresme
and Walter Erdelen
6 Spreading the Seeds of Knowledge
Ines Atmosukarto
8 Many Ways to Make a Difference
Elena Bradatan
10 A Big Problem in a Small World
Rehana Jauhangeer
12 Unlocking Nutrition’s Cancer-Prevention Potential
Reema Fayez Tayyem
14 Personal Challenge, Shared Triumph
Victoria Yavelsky
16 From Math Geek to Malaria Genetics
Chemistry
Pardis Sabeti
18 Continuing the Family Business
Barno Sultanova
20 Unlocking Nature’s Pharmacopeia
Farzana Shaheen
22 Believing in the Environment
Stephanie Jenouvrier
24 Ministering to the Needs of a Nation
The world needs science.
Science needs women.
Ecology
Christine Ouinsavi
26 The Romance of Biodiversity
Gisella Cruz Garcia
28 Tackling a Pesty Problem from Different Angles
M. Laura Guichón
30 Virus Crime Scene Investigator
Young women researchers in the Life Sciences have until June 30th 2009 to apply for the
2010 Unesco-L’Oréal For Women in Science International Fellowships. The Fellowships in
support of research abroad are worth up to $40,000 each over a two-year period.
Application forms for 2010 Fellowships will be available from March 2009 at:
www.unesco.org/en/fellowships/loreal
Marcia Roye
32 Finding the Right Balance
Devi Stuart-Fox
Life Sciences
34 Resilience in the Face of Stress
Ahu Altinkut-Uncuoglu
36 Flourishing to the Extreme
Prudence Mutowo
38 Folk Medicine for the 21st Century
Mary George Kaileh
Writers: Laura Bonetta, Emma Hitt, Virginia Gewin, Carol Milano
Editor: Sean Sanders; Copy Editor: Robert Buck; Designer: Amy Hardcastle
ii
www.forwomeninscience.com
© 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
© 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved
For an electronic version of this booklet, go to www.sciencecareers.org/lorealwis
Common Passion for Common Good
W
hen we are growing up, we often imagine ourselves doing certain jobs: firefighter,
sports star, lawyer, farmer, doctor. But the twists and turns that we encounter as
we travel down life’s road often take us in very different directions from those we
expected. Some of the women featured in this booklet knew that they wanted to
be scientists. But many didn’t. They discovered their enjoyment of science through
trial and error, through chance or fate. The road ahead is not always clear, but it
is often more interesting and fun to make your own path, as these women have
done, rather than follow the same road that everyone else is on.
All of the young women profiled in this booklet are unique. They come from
many countries around the world, from diverse cultures, and often from very
different backgrounds. Each has faced obstacles—poverty, discrimination,
political unrest—but all have overcome these difficulties, even growing stronger
for having faced them.
As there are differences, so are there similarities. These scientists, who have been
kind enough to let us get a glimpse of who they really are, have many things in
common: a passion for what they do, the desire to give back to their communities
and help others less fortunate than themselves, and an inner strength that allows
them to achieve their goals.
Another common thread you will notice in these inspirational stories is that all of
these women have a connection to the L’Oréal Foundation and UNESCO through
a fellowship they received. On the facing page, you can learn more about how the
L’Oréal Foundation and UNESCO support women in science.
We here at Science and AAAS hope that you enjoy reading about the lives of
these remarkable young women and are inspired by what they have achieved. All
of these women have set out to make the world a better place; although they are
still young, many have already achieved that goal. Each is exceptional in her own
way, but they are also just like every young scientist: full of hope and passion, as
well as some fear and uncertainty.
Look at what they have done and know that you can do it, too. You can also find
your passion, your path. And make a difference.
THE UNESCO - L’ORÉAL
INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIPS
ENCOURAGING TALENT
Fifteen UNESCO-L’ORÉAL International Fellowships
are allocated each year to young women researchers in the life sciences, at the doctoral or postdoctoral level, whose promising projects have been
accepted by a reputable institution outside their
home country. Each Fellowship is worth a maximum of US$40,000 over two years.
L’ORÉAL-UNESCO FOR
WOMEN IN SCIENCE
2009:
Almost 900 women in
The Fellowship beneficiaries are geographically
spread, three Fellows being selected from each
of these five regions: Africa, Arab States, Asia and
the Pacific, Europe and North America, and Latin
America and the Caribbean. Since their creation,
Fellowships have been awarded to 135 women
from 71 countries.
science will have been
honored with awards or
fellowships to support
their careers since the
creation of the L’OréalUNESCO partnership:
Following a preselection process by the National
Commissions for UNESCO, four candidatures from
each country are forwarded to the Fellowship
Section at UNESCO in Paris. The final selection of
15 beneficiaries is made by a UNESCO-L’ORÉAL
Fellowship Selection Committee.
L’ORÉAL-UNESCO
AWARDS
The program aspires to support the scientific
vocations of young women, to give them the
opportunity to build international networks in
the scientific community, and to gain crucial
experience that they can take back and share with
others in their home countries.
UNESCO-L’ORÉAL
INTERNATIONAL
FELLOWSHIPS
• 57 Laureates from 27 countries
• 135 Fellows from 71 countries
L’ORÉAL NATIONAL
FELLOWSHIPS
• 670 Fellows in 48 countries
Sean Sanders, Ph.D.
Commercial Editor, Science
www.unesco.org/en/fellowships/loreal
© 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
© 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved
Changing the Face of Science
Devi Stuart-Fox
(see page 32)
Founded by a scientist a century ago, L’Oréal created in 1998 the For
Women in Science program of awards and fellowships in partnership
with UNESCO. This program has already recognized hundreds of
women in science and put down roots in nearly 90 countries—
countries as far apart as Zimbabwe, Romania, Chile, Uzbekistan,
and Indonesia. Now under the umbrella of the L’Oréal Corporate
Foundation, the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science program
supports this vast international community of talents that represents
the future of science.
Featured in this booklet are some of the UNESCO-L’Oréal
International Fellows. The Fellowships awarded to these highly
talented women are a vibrant reflection of the diversity found at all
levels of modern science: diversity of research subjects, diversity of
approaches, and diversity of the profiles of these young women who
have in common a passion for science.
These Fellowships not only help support the researchers to further
their projects and their careers, but they also express the desire of
the L’Oréal Corporate Foundation and UNESCO to put a different
face on science—fulfilled, independent, and far from the clichés that
have pursued women in science for so long.
Besides supporting research projects around the world, the
Fellowships have the secondary effect of drawing attention to these
young scientists. By exposing young girls to real-world examples of
scientific careers, the program contributes to the creation of role
models who are indispensable to attracting new generations to
careers in science.
We hope that the enthusiasm and satisfaction expressed by the
Fellows in our program will, in their turn, contribute to attracting
young women who are hesitating to choose the path of science as
a career.
Béatrice Dautresme
Executive Vice President, L’Oréal
Managing Director, L’Oréal Corporate Foundation
Logo L'Oréal Fondation d'entreprise
BETC DESIGN / 2007
Reserved.
© 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved
In 1998, UNESCO and L’Oréal established the landmark For Women in Science partnership
which aims to recognize and promote the role and significance of women in science. Each
year, the joint program includes the prestigious L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards to five outstanding
women researchers, and the UNESCO-L’Oréal International Fellowships for 15 promising
young women at the beginning of their scientific careers. Awarded since 2000, the Fellowships
permit women scientists at the doctoral and postdoctoral level to pursue their research in
host laboratories outside their home countries. Importantly, the Awards and the Fellowships
provide support and recognition for women from all regions of the world with awards made
equally to the five regions—Africa, the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the USA,
and Latin America.
The UNESCO Science, Technology and Gender Report of 2007 emphasizes that “much
talent is being wasted as girls turn away from S&T careers, and as women in S&T become
discouraged by discriminatory treatment.” In research, women are still underrepresented,
and this is particularly so at the decision-making level of science where research agendas are
set. UNESCO is dedicated to eliminating all forms of discrimination and promoting equality
between men and women. In addition, we believe women can bring about change for the
better in science and that science needs women! An important starting
point to addressing these inequalities and to promoting women’s role
in science is to provide support for talented young women, from all
corners of the globe, early in their careers. This booklet highlights
the effectiveness of the UNESCO-L’Oréal International Fellowships in
encouraging and enabling talented young women to pursue their
passion for science.
The stories of the young women highlighted here demonstrate
the rich diversity of backgrounds, interests, and personalities that
makes for an outstanding collection of potential leaders in science
Rehana Jauhangeer
throughout the world. As young women, they have a powerful voice
(see page 10)
to speak as effective and inspiring role models for others. Through
the opportunities that the Fellowships provide for visibility, nationally and internationally,
these young women develop their talents as advocates and public speakers for science and
for women. The networks they are forming and the links with each other will be important
components for their scientific work in the future. With each award, a new link is created in an
ever-growing global network of women in science that is of great importance and relevance
to both developed and developing countries. We believe that the talented recipients
of the UNESCO-L’Oréal International Fellowships will use the training and experience
gained during their fellowships to meet the challenges of using science for peace and
sustainable development.
Walter Erdelen
Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences
UNESCO
Photo Opposite Page (Bottom):
Béatrice Dautresme (left) and
Walter Erdelen (right) with fellowship
award winner Gisella Cruz Garcia
in 2007 (see page 26 for her story)
© 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved
d
ea
Spr
In Indonesia, Ines worked on screening
libraries of natural chemicals extracted from
Indonesian plants that hosted a specific type
of microorganism known as endophytic
microbes. Her aim was to identify potentially
ge
Novel Compounds
le d
B
y the time Ines Atmosukarto had
finished high school, she had lived
across the globe. Born in Romania,
Ines lived as a child with her family in
Algeria until the age of 13, when she
moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, and finished
high school there before leaving for the
University of Adelaide in Australia. There she
earned her undergraduate degree with first
class honors and her Ph.D. in biochemistry
and genetics. She returned to Indonesia
in 2001 to try to stimulate research and
development in the local biotechnology
sector. Having been exposed to so many
cultures, Ines had become passionate about
sharing what she had learned and trying to
expand scientific ties between Indonesia
and other countries. “Research in Indonesia
has been challenging, and I realized that
the best approach would be to strengthen
my international network with the aim of
eventually fostering and facilitating strong
links with Indonesia,” she says.
w
i
S e e ds of K
e
h
t
no
g
n
called Lipotek, based at the Australian
National University in Canberra, where she
currently oversees the development and
testing of novel and innovative approaches
to vaccine development. The first product,
which could act as a preventative agent
and therapy for an aggressive form of skin
cancer, is expected to be tested for the first
time on humans in early 2009.
Strength and Support
novel compounds for the pharmaceutical
and agricultural industry while at the same
time showing that the biological diversity
of Indonesia could hold potentially exciting
molecules and therefore should be better
protected from deforestation. In 2004, Ines
received the UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship
which enabled her to conduct research
at Montana State University in the United
States for several months, with Gary A.
Strobel, an acclaimed expert in the methods
of harvesting novel compounds from
microbes living symbiotically within plants.
Ines returned to Indonesia to apply her
new-found skills and to pass those skills
on to other scientists. While there, Ines also
helped establish an Indonesian Women in
Science fellowship program with L’Oréal
Indonesia and UNESCO, and a science mentoring program for young girls.
Ines credits her family, especially her
Romanian mother Ionica, as being a great
source of strength. “My mother has been
relentless in helping me deal with the
extremely difficult task of balancing my
family and professional life,” helping to care
for her now 10-year-old daughter living in
Jakarta. “Ines has turned into a tree with two
deep roots, stemming from two different
cultures from which she gains wisdom and
strength,” says Ionica about the oldest of her
three daughters.
Inez Loedin of the Indonesian Institute
of Sciences (currently at the International
Rice Research Institute in the Philippines)
has also served as a role model and men-
tor for Ines. “Ines has a passion for science
and her work,” her mentor says. “She always
tried to make the best of the available facilities, overcoming limitations, such as faulty
equipment, and finding alternatives when
necessary. She also networked with scientists in more developed countries to help
support her work, and was very good at
motivating and encouraging the young undergraduate students that entered her lab.”
No Limits
Ines’s advice to young women—“which I
received from my mother and will pass on
to my daughter”—is that there is no limit
to what you can achieve as long as you set
your mind to it. According to Ines, there may
be times when one will feel disadvantaged
by gender, age, race, or other factors, “but
these should act as a further incentive to
disprove all of the skeptics. The road will
not be easy, but whatever you decide to do,
it will be because it is your choice and not
something that has been imposed on you
by others.”
Moving On by Starting Up
The research experience gained in the
United States led Ines to the establishment
of a small, startup biotechnology company
with the assistance of the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences and funds from local
and international investors. Her success
with this company landed Ines a position
as chief scientific officer at another startup,
“Whatever you decide to do, it will be because it is your choice”
© 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
Sticking with the Children
Many Ways to
Make a Difference
After completing her fellowship in Belgium and moving back to Romania, Elena said she
found the benefit of the UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship to be enormous. Her professional skills
had become more honed, and she was able to interview at many of the top institutions
in Romania. However, Elena says she also found a health system still in financial and
organizational distress and one that could not guarantee proper treatment for sick children
with cancer, “to such an extent that it was difficult psychologically for me to continue to
work in pediatric oncology.” Elena therefore directed her interests to pediatric allergy and
immunology and about a year later found a position at the Centre Hospitalier Régional
(CHR) de Namur, in Belgium, to accompany her husband, a veterinarian who took a research
position in Liege, Belgium. “I think research is extremely interesting but now my work is
mainly clinical because I love interacting with people, especially children,” she notes.
An Uncommon Will
A
s a young girl growing up in Romania, Elena Bradatan decided early on to follow
in the footsteps of her mother, a pediatrician, who in Elena’s opinion had a very interesting career. Her grandparents also encouraged her interest in science by giving
her a chemistry set one year, which she played with all summer long.
Several years later, Elena began working as a research assistant in the Saint Maria Pediatric
Hospital in Iasi, Romania, with the goal of attaining a Ph.D. in medicine at Iasi’s Medical
University. “While I was doing my oncology internship service, I spent a large part of
my internship in pediatrics, and what affected me most were the faces of the suffering
children who could not be treated because of the severe side effects of the chemotherapy,”
she says.
Throughout her career, Elena says she has been supported by her husband and also
her two mentors, Stela Gotia, professor of pediatrics, and Ingrid Miron, chief of the
pediatric hematology oncology service at the l’Hôpital Universitaire des Enfants de Iasi
Roumanie. “These are two female personalities with remarkable charisma that I especially
admire,” she says.
“Elena was indeed one of the inspiring interns that we had in the pediatric oncology and
hematology ward,” says Miron of her former student. “She really had a special way of dealing
with sick children and demonstrated both technical and human skills when working
here.” Miron also points out that Elena does not quit easily and has an uncommon will for
surpassing difficulties, and that this has likely helped her build her career.
Elena encourages women interested in a scientific career to stay positive and “hold in
their mind an image of their conquest. Although the work is serious and rigorous, more
than one might imagine, it offers such joy.”
Preventing Side Effects
One of the most devastating effects of many types of chemotherapy is the way in which it
destroys white blood cells, which protect against infection. As part of her doctoral thesis,
Elena wanted to try to address this problem using certain blood growth factors, which can
stimulate the production of blood cells and combat this effect. Making use of the UNESCOL’Oréal Fellowship she was awarded in 2004, Elena was able to work with researchers in
Belgium, at the Saint Luc University Clinic of the Catholic University of Louvain. There she
helped to identify the best dose of blood growth factors that could be administered in
children receiving chemotherapy. Specifically, she evaluated whether blood growth factor
support could be given at half the dose in select patients and still prevent side effects
from chemotherapy. “These findings have been taken into consideration by my Romanian
colleagues who now use this new dosage with more confidence,” Elena says.
Her desire to carry out this research was fueled in part by conditions in her homeland of
Romania, where the communist regime ended in 1989, but the infrastructure of health care
and health insurance still had not been established. “Obtaining this type of treatment was
difficult in my country at the time, and for me, this research was a way to contribute.”
© 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
“I love interacting with people, especially children.”
A Big Problem
Initial Inspirations
“I have always been fascinated by science,” Rehana says. “My high school chemistry teacher
inspired me and was my role model—she would tell us to walk along the corridor wearing
our lab coats—saying that one day this would be our uniform as scientists.” After high
school, Rehana began working in the central health laboratory at the Victoria Hospital in
Mauritius. She then moved to London to begin work on her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees
at the University of Westminster under the supervision of Pamela Greenwell, Dave Perry,
and Mike Wren.
“Rehana gave up many things to come to study in the UK including her job, her family ties,
and her lifestyle,” Greenwell remembers. “She immediately found a job to support herself,
working in the university during weekdays and on weekends, then in a private laboratory
at night. She did this for five years, and never complained, and she always had endless
patience with students working with her,” she says.
Now Rehana works as a postdoctoral researcher at the clinical immunology department
at the University College London Hospital. There, she works with Marlene Swana, David
Isenberg, and eminent scientist Ivan Roitt, whose seminal work in 1956 helped establish the
previously unknown role of autoimmunity in human disease.
“I have always been
fascinated by science.”
in a Small World
M
auritius, a small island located in the Indian
Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa, is a popular
paradise-like travel destination. It also has one of
the highest incidences of type 2 diabetes in the world.
About one-quarter of the 1.3 million strong multiethnic
population has type 2 diabetes or is at high risk of developing the disease. Of those, many will ultimately develop
blindness, kidney failure, and/or foot complications, a
leading cause of amputation.
Rehana Jauhangeer grew up in the midst of this escalating problem, which affects not only people in her homeland, but also more and more of the world’s population. Rehana is now working to pursue ways to combat the effects
of this disease. She studies defects in the immune system of
patients with diabetes which make them susceptible to the
bacteria that invade ulcers in the foot. Specifically, she has
developed a method for rapidly detecting the presence of
bacteria in these ulcers. The test will help shorten treatment
times, and may prevent foot amputation due to gangrene.
10 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
Networking and Giving Back
According to Rehana, so far in her scientific career, the receipt of the UNESCO-L’Oréal
Fellowship has been her “best and biggest achievement.” When she was awarded the
fellowship, she was honored with the task of presenting her project at the UNESCO
headquarters in Paris in front of an audience made up of internationally renowned
scientists, journalists, and diplomats. These efforts, she feels, have helped put Mauritius
on the scientific map and have allowed her to attract more funding for her work. Since
then, she has also had the opportunity to network with other scientists at international
conferences, such as BioVision, held in Lyon each year, and has organized a workshop with
the Mauritius Research Council that has brought together specialists in Mauritius who deal
with the different aspects of diabetes treatment and its management. She has also been
on a committee for the Global Scientific Challenges: Perspectives from Young Scientists
conference organized by the International Council of Science, an umbrella organization
of UNESCO.
Transmitting the Passion
Rehana serves as a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster in the UK where she
teaches biomedical sciences and molecular biology. In the future, Rehana would like to
become more involved with applied research that will bring “real solutions in the form
of therapies and better diagnosis of disease.” She says she also wants to be involved with
other activities for the public understanding of science and find ways to attract the next
generation into studying science. “I am a great advocate of mentoring and transmitting the
passion for science,” she adds. “It is very important to have a mentor at the very beginning of
your career and a person who would guide you to get on track for a successful and fruitful
career in science.” She adds that “to achieve your ultimate goals, passion is essential.”
11
Unlocking Nutrition’s
Cancer-Prevention
Potential
R
eema Fayez Tayyem has diverse research interests, but
her scientific pursuits have one common goal—a desire
to uncover the hidden health benefits of nutrition. Her
work has ranged from how to improve the nutritional qualities
of mashrouh bread to quantifying the cancer-fighting ability of
curcumin, the yellow pigment found in the curry and turmeric
spices. To do so, she looks to see what her fellow Jordanians eat
and what diseases they get.
Nutritional Counseling
Reema’s focus on Jordanian residents makes sense. It is a way to
correlate existing data to help people in her local communities
live healthier lives. For example, Reema translated her work into
general nutritional education campaigns as well as nutritional
counseling specifically for renal disease patients. In fact, her
Ph.D. research led to a patent for the preparation of a medicinal
supplement of arginine, an amino acid that helps relax blood
vessels, which can allow patients with certain heart problems to
exercise more easily.
But Reema’s regional focus is also the result of having few existing resources to support scientific research at her disposal.
Reema did not have a chance to study abroad during her postgraduate work at the University of Jordan—an experience she
hoped would enable her to use more advanced research equipment and techniques that might foster new research ideas.
Developing New Ways
Securing Her Future
When she heard of the UNESCO-L’Oréal
Fellowship, she applied but did not expect
to win the award. “I knew it would be very
competitive with women from all over the
world, so I was pleasantly surprised to win,”
she says.
In 2006, Reema traveled to the University
of California at San Diego’s (UCSD) Nutrition
Research Laboratory at the Moores Cancer
Center, intent on making each moment
of her six-month stay count because the
mother of two didn’t know if she would
have another opportunity to travel. “I
learned as much in those six months as I
did in four years of my Ph.D.,” she says. While
there, she strengthened her populationbased study approach by developing new
ways of analyzing the curcumin content in
both turmeric itself as well as in a patient’s
blood and urine.
That confidence has helped her make
difficult career decisions to balance her
family responsibilities and work loads. “Many
women have trouble moving forward after
they receive their Ph.D. degree because the
most critical demands of family and career
occur during this same window of time,”
she says. For example, only a few women
proceed to be full professors at Jordanian
universities. To better ensure her success,
Reema had taken on many roles—such
as head of the nutrition and dietetics
department—to secure her academic
future. Reema says her decision to step
down from that administrative position has
helped her focus on her research and find a
better balance for her family.
Forging Collaborations
Interestingly, she says, she thought visiting
the United States would give her access
to information she didn’t have before. “I
realized that while I did have access to
equipment, I didn’t get any information that
wasn’t already available on the Internet or
in books. But I did get more experience and
self-confidence,” she says.
Reema says the biggest lesson was learning how to forge productive collaborations
with other university researchers. “I feel
more competitive with my male colleagues
who often have greater opportunities to
see how international collaborations can
form,” she says.
Since her fellowship, Reema’s publication list has grown by leaps and bounds as
a result of collaborations. “When I went to
UCSD, I was an assistant professor with only
two papers published. I now have 12 papers
published or in press and have been promoted to associate professor,” she says.
The scale of Reema’s work has increased
too. She is conducting clinical trials of
curcumin’s cancer-prevention ability. She
started a large study of 800 subjects with a
mixture of different ethnic backgrounds to
measure curcumin intake among Jordanian
people to see if the amount that people eat
is linked to whether they get cancer or not.
Reema plans to continue studying how
nutrition may prevent cancer. She recently
got funding to study the dietary and lifestyle risk factors for a type of intestinal cancer among Jordanians. Reema hopes one
day to acquire the instruments that will help
use her population studies of disease risk to
develop disease treatments. Until then, her
work is a reminder that science is driven by
ideas—not technology.
“I feel more competitive with my male colleagues.”
12 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
13
Personal Challenge,
Shared Triumph
V
ictoria Yavelsky is an ovarian cancer researcher focused on innovative methods for
early detection and treatment of the disease, the fifth most common form of cancer.
She is also a gynecological cancer survivor. When she first learned of the UNESCOL’Oréal Fellowship, Victoria believed her story would resonate with the grant’s mission to
facilitate new research possibilities for deserving young women scientists. It did.
Rising out of Disaster
Victoria’s career path is no less than remarkable—particularly because it was, inadvertently,
set in motion by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. At the time, a pregnant Victoria was living
in nearby Kiev in the Ukraine. She and her physician parents were recruited to help treat the
Chernobyl victims. In just 48 hours, Victoria and her unborn son became victims too. They
were exposed to high levels of radiation, which would change their lives. Victoria, a single
parent, was urged to take her son, Alex, born underweight and with difficulty breathing, to a
better climate after his birth. She decided to move to Israel because of her Jewish heritage.
Despite the difficult move, Victoria first sought training as a nurse to earn the money
necessary to pursue graduate training in molecular biology at Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev in Israel. She completed a Master’s degree, but fell ill as she began her Ph.D. She
soon learned that she had a gynecological malignancy—possibly a consequence of her
radiation exposure. Once she recovered, Victoria chose to focus her dissertation research on
the disease that almost killed her.
Eagerly Investigating
In 2003, Victoria won the UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship. Professionally, the collaborations
gained through the award proved pivotal to her career. While her focus was always on ovarian cancer, she says the money allowed her to pursue her work in grander ways. “The fel-
“My parents and son were pivotal in enabling my success ...
14 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
lowship essentially enabled the globalization of my research so that I could work with the
upper echelon of great scientific minds, which has had a lasting impact on my career and
myself personally,” she says. In particular, collaborative work with German scientists Michael
Pfreundschuh and Dieter Preuss, both oncologists at Saarland University Medical School in
Homburg, facilitated her research efforts to identify cancer-specific antigens that prompt
an immune system response—and therefore, could potentially be used as a diagnostic test
of early-stage cancer. The work’s commercial potential was recognized and promoted by
Gerald Chan, a US-based radiation biologist turned biotechnology investor who is one of
many proponents of early cancer diagnostics as the best way to significantly increase cancer survival rates.
Being introduced to ideas and techniques from collaborators around the world helped
Victoria identify and study mechanisms for slowing the spread of cancer cells. In addition to
her work as a researcher at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Victoria is eagerly investigating
ways to engineer antibody-producing cells, in collaboration with Leslie Lobel, as a senior
investigator at a drug development company called Docoop Technologies in Israel.
Emotional and Moral Support
While the professional relationships that developed in recent years
have shaped her career development, so have the more personal
ones. “The fellowship also helped me forge many close professional relationships, in particular with other women scientists—including my graduate advisers, Michal Shapira and Marina Wolfson, and
the current president of the university, Rivka Carmi—who offered
me much-needed emotional and moral support to overcome the
many obstacles in my path,” says Victoria. “My parents and son, too,
were pivotal in enabling my success as they believed in me and
supported my dreams.”
The fellowship holds special significance for Victoria—perhaps
because she could have benefited from her own research. “I think
that there needs to be a greater focus on diseases of women, and
in particular, the malignant diseases,” she says. Ovarian cancer, for
example, is called the silent or whispering disease because its
vague symptoms are often overlooked or misdiagnosed until it
becomes more advanced.
‘Incentive for the Uphill Struggle’
In addition, Victoria says the fellowship emboldened her desire to overcome the worklife challenges that women pursuing a scientific career often face. “The L’Oreal fellowship
is extremely important because it acknowledges that women, who typically raise children
during the course of their careers, need an extra incentive for the uphill struggle they face to
define and achieve their research goals,” she says.
Victoria’s career success exemplifies that women scientists are able to achieve their goals
despite the expected—and even unexpected—difficulties balancing a professional and
personal life, and can turn that recognition into greater reward.
as they believed in me and supported my dreams.”
15
Nurture Your Confidence
From Math Geek
to Malaria Genetics
P
ardis Sabeti did not set out to
be an award-winning scientist and
Harvard University professor of evolutionary biology. The self-described math
“geek” planned to attend medical school
to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming
a doctor. But her drive to excel combined
with her insatiable desire to solve mathematical puzzles nurtured a groundbreaking
research career.
A Ph.D.’s Worth of Work
In 2002, Pardis rocked the genetics world
by developing an algorithm able to sift
through the human genome to identify
evidence of natural selection. Pardis’s
relentless efforts have garnered her a wall
of awards. The biology major graduated
from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford
University. “I never chose to get a Ph.D., but
before I knew it I had a Ph.D.’s worth of work
simply by pursuing my interest in genetic
diversity,” she says. She ultimately earned
her Ph.D. in biological anthropology.
In 2004, Pardis won the UNESCO-L’Oréal
Fellowship, which, she says, inspired her
career in unforeseen ways. “I didn’t initially
understand how this fellowship would reverberate beyond my research endeavors,”
she says.
Exciting the Next Generation
She recalls one moment that made her
realize the award’s lasting impact. At
the 2004 American Association for the
Advancement of Science annual meeting,
she spoke to a group of young girls who
were interested in pursuing scientific
careers. Pardis was stunned by the energy of
these girls and their hunger for role models,
and amused when they even asked for her
autograph. “For me, the greatest impact of
the L’Oréal fellowship was understanding
how to interact with and excite the next
generation,” she says.
Pardis went one step further to encourage
the next generation. She used her fellowship dollars to sponsor students—in particular, two girls from local high schools—to
work in her lab. The girls’ contributions were
so valuable that Pardis included them as
co-authors on a recent high profile publication. “Those students were life-changing
for me,” she says. “I was like a proud mother,
taking pictures of their first data result or
their first talk.” Most important, she says the
experience got her excited about the prospect of becoming a professor. “I thought I
was going to be a full-time clinical doctor
in a hospital. Until then, I hadn’t thought
about being a professor at a research institution,” she says.
In 2006, Pardis became an assistant professor at Harvard University. At the same time
she was asked to serve on the National
Academy of Science’s Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine. As
a young faculty member, Pardis is cautious
about taking on too many roles outside of
research, but felt strongly about promoting
women in science.
She was also honored as a “Rising Talent”
at the Women’s Forum for the Economy and
Society, an annual meeting of 1,200 leaders
in politics, business, culture, and academia
from over 70 countries who gather to discuss the major issues facing societies today.
There, the discussion turned to advancing
to the next career level—and how differently men and women view their readiness
for tasks. “One speaker noted that women
tend to stay within a safe zone, often accepting a job when they feel they are 150
percent ready,” she says, adding that she has
also found that to be true. Pardis says one
of the most important pieces of advice she
can pass on to young women is that they
nurture the confidence to sense when they
are ready to take the next career step.
Two Important Diseases
Pardis’s bold research moves reveal her confidence. Her work in genetics and interest
in medicine culminated in her discovery
of several examples of how infectious diseases have shaped the genomes of regional
populations. In her new research lab, she is
embarking on projects to study two important infectious diseases in Africa, malaria
and Lassa hemorrhagic fever. Together with
malaria expert Dyann Wirth, she is investigating the rapid evolution of the malaria
parasite genome. She is looking, for example, for genetic variations that allow malaria
to resist current antimalaria drugs. The work
will help identify potential vaccine and drug
targets—and help detect drug resistance at
an early stage.
While Pardis may have originally intended
to be on a different career path, her work
has already made an impact, and her future
research on malaria alone has the potential
to help thousands of people who otherwise
might die from the disease each year.
“ I was like a proud mother, taking pictures of their first data result.”
16 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
17
On to Germany
Continuing the
Family Business
When Barno started to study polymer chemistry, she realized that a wealth of new discoveries
came from Germany. “Looking back in history, many discoveries in chemistry were due to
German scientists—and so to study in Germany was my dream,” she says. Barno attended
Tashkent State Pedagogical University in Uzbekistan’s capital of Tashkent. After completing
her studies there in 1999, she joined the A.S. Sadykov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of
the Academy of Sciences, also in Tashkent. At that time, she familiarized herself with the
literature on bacterial cellulose, and in 2004 was awarded a
fellowship to study at Hamburg University in Germany.
In 2006, after returning to Uzbekistan and receiving support
from her government, she was excited to learn of the UNESCOL’Oréal Fellowship she was to receive toward her doctoral studies.
With this funding, Barno was able to return to Friedrich-Schiller
University where she is currently working toward completing
her Ph.D. by mid 2009.
Proud Role Model
A
s the youngest child in her family living in Uzbekistan, Barno Sultanova grew
up hearing about chemistry from her father, brother, and sister, all of whom were
chemists. The family also lived in the apartment block that belonged to the Institute
of Cellulose Chemistry and Technology of the Academy of Sciences, where her neighbors
would discuss their research within earshot of the young girl.
Seeing Beyond the Unpleasant
It was no surprise, therefore, that Barno felt inspired and encouraged to enter the “family
business,” deciding to study organic and polymer chemistry. Specifically, her interests led
her to study a substance called bacterial cellulose and the ways in which it can be used
as a dressing for wounds. Cellulose is found abundantly in nature, particularly in plants.
Bacteria, when they collect together, also produce cellulose to make what is known as a
“biofilm.” When protected by their biofilm, bacteria become much more resilient to attack
from disinfectants and antibiotics than individual bacteria existing alone.
Barno was interested in the idea that certain properties of bacterial cellulose make it a
desirable wound covering. Bacterial cellulose allows oxygen and moisture to reach the
damaged area and can also be made to contain antibiotics to help in the healing. Barno’s
research is exploring the different properties of cellulose produced by strains of the
Acetobacter xylinum bacterium and is trying to identify which forms work best for different
types of wounds. Although she agrees that using bacterial products on wounds might be
unpleasant to think about, she says the wound covering works well, and she hopes her final
product will have “many medical and technical uses.”
Barno has made time along the way to raise two children, a son
and a daughter, with the support of an “understanding man
as my husband.” Barno says she is especially proud to be a role
model for her children. “This summer when I was on holiday at
home, I asked my son what he wanted to be when he grew up.
He wasn’t entirely sure, but he said he liked mathematics and
physics, and respects chemistry because of me,” she says. “This
made me very happy.”
Perfecting Her Delivery
Barno has not been easily deterred by challenges in her life.
In 2004, she decided she needed to improve her English. She
sought and won a scholarship to study at the Central Institute
of English and Foreign Languages in Hyderabad, India. Recently,
in April 2008, Barno made her first trip to the United States to
attend the American Chemical Society national meeting and
to deliver an oral presentation there. “From the beginning,
Barno worked very hard to perfect her delivery in English,
and overcome many organizational and financial problems to
attend,” says Dieter Klemm, her professor at the Friedrich-Schiller
University. “It was her first presentation at a large meeting, and
she did really well.”
Barno advises young women in science to try to seek a balance between work and family
life, but to know that “you can achieve anything if you just have a dream.” Life can be difficult
at times, especially for women who are expected to be many things to many people, she
says, but “we just have to try to find our own form of internal motivation and overcome
these difficulties.”
“You can achieve anything if you just have a dream.”
18 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
19
Working with Peace of Mind
Revealing Nature’s
Pharmacopeia
B
y her own admission, Farzana Shaheen comes from a society with strong customs
and limitations for women, where a woman’s success in science “requires much
effort, hard work and dedication.” But Farzana has not let that deter her. Born in
Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Farzana has pursued a single direction in her career with the precision
of an archer’s arrow. She is a “crazy and great scientist, who is determined about her work,
sometimes spending long hours in the lab to complete her experiments,” says Sohail Gagai,
a guardian who has helped support her in her studies, living in Karachi, Pakistan. “She is not
afraid of any obstacle in life, and she seems to love what she does,” he adds.
Growing up in Pakistan, Farzana earned
undergraduate and graduate degrees at the
Quaid-i-Azam University, in the capital city
of Islamabad. She then pursued her Ph.D. in
natural product chemistry at the University
of Karachi under the supervision of M. Iqbal
Choudhary, graduating in March 2000. According to Farzana, Choudhary, along with
other professors, was a great support to her
as she tried to make a name for herself in
such a male-dominated field.
Plant Medicine
Farzana’s research has sought to root out
compounds in nature that may be used
to treat human diseases. While working on
her doctoral degree, Farzana identified potent substances from traditional medicinal
plants that could potentially prevent convulsions in epilepsy. “So far, only preventive medicines exist for epilepsy, but none
of them cures the underlying disorder and
the disease prevails for the entire life of the
patient,” she says. According to Farzana,
the available antiepileptic drugs are also
associated with severe side effects when
used over the long term. She hopes that
the compounds she has identified may
provide an alternative treatment option
for these patients.
After graduating with her Ph.D. in 2001,
Farzana was appointed as an assistant professor of organic chemistry at the H.E.J. Research Institute. The UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship she received allowed her to travel to the
United Kingdom in 2005 to work with Arasu
Ganesan at the University of Southampton.
This was her first experience working abroad.
“There I worked on many small projects and
learned synthetic organic chemistry,” she
says. During that time, Farzana was also
able to synthesize some of the antiepileptic products that she had identified during
her doctoral research, moving her research
forward significantly.
As it has a habit of doing, family life intervened at the time Farzana was about to travel abroad.
She gave birth to her first child right before leaving for the University of Southampton. She
credits her understanding husband Zahuri Abdul Rauf, who “allowed me to work there with
peace of mind,” for helping her with this task. Now she continues to balance her career and
family life, with her son, who is now four years old, as well as a one-year-old daughter.
Combine and Conquer
Recently, Farzana won a Fulbright Scholarship for 2008-2009 to work with Kit S. Lam at the
University of California, Davis. Working with one of the foremost experts in the field, Farzana
is learning advanced combinatorial chemistry, which describes the process of bringing
together the active parts of different molecules to come up with the best and most effective
combination. She is using these powerful and novel techniques to build a collection of
agents that can be tested for possible use in treating a wide variety of diseases.
To date, Farzana has one US patent, for a synthetic antiepileptic compound, and 35
publications in international journals under her belt. She also supervises six graduatelevel students at the H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry in Pakistan. Currently, Farzana
is applying combinatorial chemistry techniques to identify molecules that can potentially
stop cancer in its tracks.
She plans to return home to Pakistan soon to apply what she has learned. According to
Farzana, it is important to love what you do and think positively. “You can get your inspiration
from thinking about the things you are doing for this world, and the benefits that may come
from your research and discoveries.”
“You can get your inspiration from things you are doing for this world.”
20 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
21
Believing in the
Environment
S
ome people know what they want to
do with their lives from a young age.
But not Stephanie Jenouvrier. She
had never envisioned she would someday
help people realize the devastating effects
that global climate change is having on the
environment. “I never planned to be a researcher,” says Stephanie, currently a population ecologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in the United States.
“When I find something I am interested in,
I just follow my feelings. That is what I have
always done.”
Visiting the Antarctic
Stephanie got her first taste of research in
high school, back in France where she grew
up. Her biology teacher often organized
trips to a nearby research center where
students conducted small projects. “I had a
really good experience and loved it,” recalls
Stephanie. Because of that, she attended
university to study biology, focusing on
animal ecology—what seemed like a good
fit for someone who had always loved the
outdoors and animals. As part of her studies,
Stephanie worked in national parks, monitoring the numbers of brown bears. Again,
she loved that work.
She applied to graduate school to work
in the laboratory of Henri Weimerskirch,
research director at the Center for Biology
Research in Chizé, France. Her Ph.D. focused
on how changes in climate affect sea birds
living in Antarctica. Part of her research
required visiting the French Antarctic territories for two- to three-month stretches
to gather data. Global climate change is
impacting many ecological processes all
over the world, but the consequences
seem to be particularly dramatic in the
polar regions.
their breeding colony on Antarctic islands,
and whether they would breed, feed, nest,
and so on. “Last time I went to the Antarctic
I was responsible for following penguins.
Our team would survey them for 24 hours,
so sometimes my shift lasted until 4 o’clock
in the morning,” she recalls. “It is very intense
work, but I love that. It is so unique to spend
a day observing penguins.”
To be able to predict the fate of these
animals Stephanie knew it would not be
enough to merely observe them. She
would need to join forces with experts in
mathematical models. With support from
a UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship, she was able
to move to the United States to work with
mathematicians at Woods Hole. The fellowship paid for part of her salary while she
worked there and also allowed her to visit
climate scientists working at the National
Center for Atmospheric Research and the
National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. “The fellowship allowed me
to spend several weeks in Boulder,” says
Stephanie. “Any biologist who studies the
impact of climate change should have this
kind of collaboration with climatologists.”
Indeed the interaction and sharing of
ideas with these scientists allowed Stepha-
nie to use models of climate change to
predict what would happen to emperor
penguin populations if current trends in
greenhouse gas emissions continue. “If I
can provide scientific evidence that climate
change affects populations of animals, I can
convince people that it is important to do
something about it,” she explains.
Staying Flexible
And she is well on her way to doing just that.
The results she obtained while working in
Woods Hole were recently published in the
scientific journal, Proceedings of the National
Academies of Science. They provide a dire
warning. Stephanie’s work predicts that the
number of emperor penguin “couples” will
decline from 6,000 to 400 by the year 2100.
Despite only being at the start of her
career, Stephanie’s research is already having
an impact. But success does not come
without sacrifices. “My mother always asks
me ‘When are you going to have children?’”
she says with a laugh. “But it is not easy to
have children while you are doing your
Ph.D. and postdoctoral studies. You have
to be able to travel and be flexible.” Still, she
would not trade in her lifestyle for anything,
at least not for now. “I have not been to the
Antarctic in a year now and I hope to be
able to go back soon,” she says.
Observing Penguins
Much of Stephanie’s work during those
months consisted of catching birds to
attach an identification ring on their leg, so
that they could be tracked over time. She
also monitored previously tagged birds to
see when and where they would return to
22 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
“It is so unique to spend a day observing penguins.”
23
Call to Service
Ministering to the Needs of a Nation
C
hristine Ouinsavi always loved nature. But she never imagined that her fascination
with plants would lead her to the highest levels of government in Benin, her native
West African country.
Christine received a UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship in 2007 for her postdoctoral studies. As
she was finishing statistical analysis of her
data, an unexpected request came: President Boni Yayi of the Republique of Benin
invited her to join his new government. “He
had been seeking highly educated women
leaders who could help him build the country technically, economically, and politically.
I was identified as one,” she learned. Following a meticulous selection process, Christine
was named Minister of Primary Education,
Literacy and National Languages.
“It was an opportunity to reveal the ability of women to contribute to the management of state affairs, as well as a new experience and a chance to be useful to my country.” Deeply committed to girls’ education,
Christine was involved in 2008 with a new
mobile outreach: an educational program
that tours rural districts where girls’ enrollment and attendance rates are low, and
stresses to parents the importance of sending daughters to school. She believes that
educating girls will improve their own wellbeing, and the prosperity of their families,
communities, and country.
Focus on Conservation
A Global Organizer
After secondary school, Christine enrolled at a local agricultural college, but soon realized
that the courses offered “might not help me to be a researcher. My wish was to go as far as
possible at school—to get the highest degree,” she recalls. She earned a Master’s in science
at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria; a biotech training course at Ghana’s Forestry Research
Institute persuaded her to focus on conservation of forest resources. “I believed that I could
find new ways to help preserve the forests, and contribute to Benin’s national economy,”
Christine says.
Research for her Ph.D. in agronomy began in 2003 at Benin’s University of Abomey Calavi,
on sustainable management of locust bean fruit, shea butter trees, and ronier palms. She
hopes her work will eventually benefit both Benin’s plants and its citizens. “Rural people
here rely on the sale or use of forest products to meet their daily needs,” Christine explains.
Current harvesting methods put native trees at risk of overexploitation, lowered genetic
diversity, and unsustainability. “Research on endangered tree species will help to conserve
and reestablish plantations with high-yielding plants, and ensure a stable income source
for the rural population.”
“My first role as a minister was related to my
skill as an educator and human resource
manager,” she reflects. In October 2008,
President Yayi reorganized his government,
and appointed Christine as Minister of
Trade and Industry—one of only four
women at this level. “He wants me to use
my managerial ability to organize women
who sell at local markets, as well as those
who are involved in internal and external
trading, in order to make Benin’s commercial
sector more professional and structured,”
she summarizes.
She attends important international gatherings, like December’s UN Conference on
Trade and Development in Kenya. Despite
a hectic schedule requiring frequent travel,
“My wish was to go as far as possible at school.”
24 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
Christine pursues her research as much as
possible. She’s arranged to continue part
of her lab work at the Africa Rice Center
in Cotonou, and is a lecturer in agronomy
at the University of Parakou. She served as
president of the Benin National Commission for UNESCO in 2006, organizing and
participating in such gatherings as the Regional Conference of the African National
Commission of UNESCO.
Encouraging Girls
Christine finds her newest position “interesting, but quite different from scientific research. However, an educated woman who
develops scientific and managerial capacity
could easily succeed at this job. I would like
to encourage girls to be interested in the
sciences because I can state with certainty
that a scientific woman is a complete one.”
So far in her career, Christine is proudest
of “being at the top—among the highest
level women in the government. My dream
is already partially realized,” she confides.
What’s next? “Once my research project is
complete, and after my experience in government, my goal is to attain a decisionmaking position in an international organization or institute, so I can be more useful as
a woman leader,” Christine declares.
25
The Romance
of Biodiversity
J
acques Cousteau converted her. Watching and admiring his documentaries as a child,
“I always wanted to be a scientist,” says Gisella Cruz Garcia. Though the family lived in
urban Lima, Peru, “I was different; I liked going to rural areas to see plants and nature.”
A New Arrival
Majoring in biology and ecology, Gisella graduated at the top of her class from Lima’s
Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. She studied biodiversity along Peru’s Pacific coast,
in the Amazon rain forest, and also in the Andes mountains. In 2001 Paul Peters, a Dutch
student, arrived in a tiny Andean town to study medicinal plants. “He hardly spoke Spanish,
only English. I was the only one who knew any English, and had to help him communicate
with workers,” Gisella recalls. “Then the romance started. We’ve been together ever since!”
She moved to the Netherlands in 2003, and married Paul, an agronomist.
For her Master’s degree at Wageningen University, Gisella chose an unusual research combination: plant science and social science. Her work was published in the Journal of Ethnobiology & Ethnomedicine—a rare achievement at the Master’s level.
Traditional Knowledge
During her doctoral studies, Gisella received two prestigious summer fellowships that gave
her the opportunity to learn essential methodologies and provided unique, unforgettable
experiences. In 2007, she and eight other Ph.D. students spent two months with Bolivian
Amazon tribes, “without electricity, bathing in the river, cutting firewood each day. We saw
the relationship between people and environment, and their traditional knowledge about
how to use plants passed from generation to generation, managing and preserving biodiversity.” Then in 2008, a European Science Foundation program took 15 Ph.D. and postdoctoral students from diverse backgrounds to Spain. “Archaeologists, biologists, geneticists,
historians all tried to understand the dynamics of agriculture in traditional societies, from
thousands of years ago up to now,” says Gisella. “I wanted to participate because, to know
where we are going, it’s important to understand where we have come from.”
Thanks to her UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship (2007-2009), says Gisella, “I can now carry out
my [rice ecosystem biodiversity] research in Thailand! It’s going excellently. I’ve been on two
long trips, to Thailand and the Philippines. In one village, I could identify, observe, and study
“It’s not only about research, but also about performing in their society, being polite.
26 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
other wild food plants in the rice landscape,” including water spinach, tamarind, and water
lilies. Research on rice, the world’s most important crop, usually considers the plant in isolation, but often rice farmers depend on other nearby plants for food, fuel, or construction
materials, and for medicinal uses.
Importance of Being Polite
As the only researcher in those Thai villages, where few speak English, Gisella had difficulty
finding anyone to help with her research. But once she learned the culture, things grew
easier. “Each country has its own ways and social norms. I have to adjust to that, starting
from how you sleep [e.g., on the floor]. It’s not only about research, but also about performing in their society, being polite. I love it!”
Gisella hopes her methodology is applicable in other places as well. Ultimately, she’d like
to work for an international organization, sustaining biodiversity in developing countries.
“It’s so important that research is not only on paper, but also that results are implemented
according to needs of local people, [especially] poor farmers—for both their livelihood and
their agriculture.”
‘Fight for Your Ideals’
Though most plant scientists are men, “it makes no difference to me,” Gisella asserts. If
you like science, “do not be afraid! Try it,” she urges. “Do what you really like, put all your
passion into it, and fight for your ideals. If you’re happy and you enjoy it, you’ll have more
opportunities and motivation.”
For women scientists, “It’s important to have someone who understands and supports
your work,” Gisella acknowledges. Luckily, she and Paul have similar ideals and careers. Now
an importer of organic, fair trade foods, he accompanies Gisella on Asian research trips. “I go
with him to talk to villagers, farmers, and companies, to also support him in his work.”
“Gisella thinks very creatively. She came up with amazingly innovative work for her Ph.D.,
because she was awarded this wonderful UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship,” says her supervisor,
anthropologist Lisa Price, associate professor in Wageningen University’s Department of
Social Sciences. “Her holistic approach is unique in agricultural research. She’s concerned
not just about plants, but about the human element, applying it to people’s lives. She’s a
wonderful role model for young women.”
I love it!”
27
Tackling a
Pesty Problem
from Different Angles
T
he red-bellied beautiful squirrel lives up to its name. Sporting a blood-red underbelly it is a striking sight in anyone’s garden, and especially in the Pampas region
of Argentina that surrounds the city of Buenos Aires. People living there had never
seen a squirrel until 35 years ago. But there, the furry critter is also causing havoc. Biologist M. Laura Guichón has made it her mission to stop it in its tracks before it causes too
much damage.
‘This Squirrel Was Everywhere’
This type of squirrel, which goes by the scientific name of Callosciurus erythraeus, is originally
from Southeast Asia. It settled in Argentina in 1973 when a handful of animals escaped or
were released from a garden where they were being kept as pets. Like many species of
animals that are not native to a country, these squirrels have no natural predators and they
multiply quickly. As they do, they ravage habitat and resources that native species—and
people—rely upon.
Laura became interested in the red-bellied beautiful squirrel while she was doing
research for her Ph.D. She was spending a lot of time outdoors, studying a rodent called
the coypu, which, unlike the squirrel, is native to Argentina. “When I was working in the field
I could see this squirrel was everywhere and causing a lot of damage to trees, agriculture,
and irrigation.”
A Model of Invasion
After her Ph.D., Laura started an independent project to study just how quickly the pesty
squirrel was invading the countryside. She received a UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship, which
allowed her to travel to England for one year to work with Patrick Doncaster at Southampton
University—an expert at constructing mathematical models. “I was immediately keen to
help her model the invasion process so that we could predict its future impacts and look for
ways to control the spread,” says Doncaster.
28 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
Together they created models of how the
squirrel population might expand 18 years
into the future under different scenarios
for managing its spread. The results where
published this year in the journal Ecography.
“One goal of this work was to suggest
ways to stop the squirrel population from
spreading farther,” explains Laura.
She credits the UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship with enabling her to work in a foreign
country, gain expertise in a different area
of research, and publish in a highly ranked
international journal, all of which ultimately
helped her obtain a permanent position as
an independent researcher at Lujan University in Argentina.
Talking to Pet Owners
At her university, she has put together a
small team of graduate and undergraduate
students. Together they are monitoring the
numbers and spread of red-bellied beautiful
squirrels, studying their ecology and how
they impact the environment, as well as
evaluating the efficacy of different methods
for managing spread. “She has the capacity
now to target management actions against
the squirrel, which will be of lasting benefit
to the Buenos Aires province and beyond,”
says Doncaster.
According to Doncaster, Laura’s work is
unique in that it combines biological research with something akin to “social work.”
Because there are no native squirrels in the
Pampas, people like to capture the squirrels to keep as pets and sometimes take
them to different areas of the country. Such
movements can greatly aid their spread.
“Part of our work is to get information to the
community by talking in schools or doing
workshops,” explains Laura. “People need
to understand that by moving the squirrel
they are creating new pockets of invasion.”
Value of Publicity
Laura says that the fellowship has helped
her work in an unexpected way. “When I got
the fellowship, L’Oréal and UNESCO issued a
press release. As a result many people in the
country heard about my project. When I talk
about my work they remembered hearing
about someone who was working on the
squirrel,” says Laura. “That is important for
the public face to my project.”
Laura is deeply committed to the work
she is doing. And that commitment, she
explains, is critical to being a successful
scientist. “I think it is great to be a scientist,
but you must have a passion for it because
science is hard work and you have to make
many compromises,” she says. One of the
compromises she made was to postpone
starting a family until she had a permanent
position as a researcher.
“But the profession also gives a lot of
flexibility,” she adds. And she has taken
advantage of it. These days she sometimes
works from home, where she can spend
time with her seven-month-old son … and
watch the red-bellied beautiful squirrels
outside her window.
“I think it is great to be a scientist.”
29
Virus Crime Scene Investigator
P
eople are not the only ones to get sick from viruses. Sometimes viruses attack
plants—and the results can be devastating. Take the geminiviruses, for example. These
microbes have wiped out entire crops, causing millions of dollars worth of damage.
Evidence of Guilt
Advising Farmers
“Members of my own family are farmers.
My brother and his wife were affected by
geminiviruses,” says Marcia Roye. “These
viruses were first discovered in the 1970s,
but until we started our research, little
was known about them in Jamaica.” A
team leader at the Biotechnology Center
of the University of the West Indies, Mona
in Kingston, Jamaica, Marcia has been
studying Jamaican geminiviruses for nearly
two decades.
Her research is helping to find ways to
stop the virus from spreading. Like crime
scene investigators, Marcia and her graduate students find infected plants in fields
and bring them back to the lab. There, they
use molecular biology tools to identify the
virus guilty of infection based on its genetic
“fingerprint.” So far, they have identified 24
different types of geminivirus that cause
havoc in Jamaica. They also discovered that
new types of viruses are forming all the
time. “Sometimes two different geminiviruses infect the same plant and exchange
genetic material. They then become a new
virus,” she explains.
Geminiviruses infect many crops such as
tomatoes, papaya, beans, and cabbage,
to name a few. But some varieties of a
particular crop—some kinds of tomatoes,
for example—are resistant to infection. So,
for each virus they have identified, Marcia’s
team has determined precisely which
varieties of crops it destroys. “We can help
prevent infection by telling farmers what
varieties of crops to plant and not to plant.
Sometimes the farmers don’t listen though,”
she says with a laugh.
Marcia learned the molecular techniques
necessary for studying geminiviruses during her Ph.D. studies. With a UNESCOL’Oréal Fellowship, she traveled in 2001
from Jamaica to the laboratory of plant
virus expert Douglas Maxwell at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United
States, where she conducted research. She
brought back the methods she learned
there; and today the work she and her graduate students are doing is known across
the world, and her lab is part of a large international research network of laboratories
studying geminiviruses.
30 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
A Mother’s Rule
Wherever There’s a Need
Her achievements are inspiring young students in Jamaica to follow in her footsteps.
“My story is similar to theirs—they can relate to that,” she says. “If they see I have done
it, they know they can do it too.” Marcia
grew up in a rural part of Jamaica, where
few people go to university and even fewer
ever meet scientists. “I don’t come from a
rich family, but education was always very
important. My mother would say ‘Even if
fire is falling from the sky you are going to
school,’” she recalls. Eventually, this passion
for education led to university, where Marcia
decided to study biochemistry. “Part of the
attraction was that, with science, I thought
I could help people in my community,”
she explains.
Working in a country like Jamaica provides many opportunities for making a difference. “I have had many opportunities to
leave Jamaica and be a researcher in other
countries, but the reason I have not left is
that I want to have an impact on the next
generation,” she explains. But there are also
challenges. “At a place like Madison, if we
needed a reagent, we would get it right
away. Here, it can take up to two to three
months,” she explains.
Marcia’s attitude is that these kinds of obstacles can easily be overcome. “We have some
problems with resources in Jamaica, but
there are many ways to get around those
problems.” She is also quick to take advantage of the expertise of other researchers.
“When I read an interesting research paper
I will e-mail the scientist who did the work
to ask questions and sometimes I go to their
lab,” she says. “They are always happy to help
with what I want to do.”
Marcia will soon turn her investigative skill
to a new and challenging area of research:
the virus that causes AIDS in people. “There
is a lot of epidemiological data in Jamaica
that tells how many people are infected
with the human immunodeficiency virus,
but there is still a lot to learn,” says Marcia.
“That is what drives my research: where
there is a need, I see what we can do.”
“
Part of the attraction was
that, with science, I thought
I could help people in my
”
community.
31
Finding the Right Balance
From Ocean to Desert
O
ne of the things I am most proud of is the research I have produced, often under challenging circumstances. I am also proud of the balance I have achieved in
terms of life experiences,” says Devi Stuart-Fox, a zoologist at the University of
Melbourne in Australia. “I am ambitious, but I have never been completely single-minded
about an academic career path. Other things are important to me.”
Freedom to Travel
Why the Brightest Colors?
One of these things is the freedom to travel and to be exposed to different cultures. While
she was doing her Ph.D. at the University of Queensland in Australia, studying variation in
the color patterns of desert lizards, Devi joined an international scientific expedition surveying a mountain range in Borneo and also spent a month in Papua New Guinea teaching
Papuan university students a course on wildlife conservation. “These were just opportunities that cropped up during my Ph.D. research and I took advantage of them,” says Devi. “I
really enjoyed going to these places and working there. It is different from being a tourist.”
It is no surprise that when it came to applying for a postdoc position in 2003, Devi started
looking for opportunities outside of Australia. At the time she was interested in asking the
question: How do animals use color to communicate with one another? One of the animals
best known for its colors is, of course, the chameleon! And most of the world’s chameleon
species are only found in Africa and Madagascar.
Male chameleons are typically a shade of
brown or green, but can switch in a flash
to bright green, yellow, orange, or pink.
Many biologists have long thought that
chameleons gained this ability to change
their skin color so that they could hide from
predators. But Devi instead determined
that, although color change is used for
camouflage, this ability evolved primarily
to allow chameleons to communicate. Male
chameleons use the brightest colors to fend
off other males or entice females.
“Devi spent a lot of time in the field capturing animals, ultimately assembling a
very large data set. She was able to get
good sample sizes even on some species
of chameleons that are quite rare,” says her
postdoc adviser, ecologist Martin Whiting. The hard work paid off. Devi’s findings
were published in a range of journals including the widely read American Naturalist and PLOS Biology, kicking off a flurry of
media attention.
Six Months in a Tent
So Devi decided to go to the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Most Australian Ph.D. graduates go to the United States or Europe to do a postdoc, but I
wanted to go somewhere different,” says Devi. “It may not have seemed the most strategic
career move at the time but I was lucky to have an excellent mentor and that the research
worked out, which opened up subsequent opportunities.”
She received a UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship, which paid for her to study 21 different
populations and species of South African dwarf chameleons, monitoring the changes in
color patterns that each produced in the wild. “I spent at least six months in a tent and
traveled very widely across the country to find chameleons,” says Devi.
As a result of her research, Devi was able to
land her current position as a lecturer in the
Department of Zoology at the University of
Melbourne and to receive grants to conduct her research. “Devi is an outstanding
scientist,” says Whiting. “She has been highly
successful and has already made a name for
herself. She is well on her way to becoming
a leader in the field.”
“I really like the research I am doing and
I like interacting with students,” says Devi.
With her students she is now looking at
how various animals—from Lake Eyre
dragon lizards in the Australian desert to
the dumpling squid—use different signals
to communicate. “I am still doing a lot of
field work with my students, but now I am
seven months pregnant so it is getting hard
to do,” she says with a laugh.
Although work has been challenging at
times, Devi knows that a greater challenge
will be combining her life as a researcher
with being a parent. “So far, research has
been my life. I have other passions like
cooking and hiking, but I spend most of
my time working,” she says. “When I have
children, I will have to take time off. I will
have no choice but to develop a better lifework balance.”
“I really like the research I am doing and I like interacting with students.”
32 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
33
R
S
esilience
St r e s s
Global Collaborations
in the Face of
ince high school, Ahu Altinkut-Uncuoglu knew she wanted to study biology and
credits a favorite biology teacher for inspiring her to pursue her Bachelor’s, Master’s,
and then Ph.D. at Istanbul University in Turkey. Nearly two decades later, Ahu is now
an accomplished scientist with an impressive academic career, attempting in a very real
way to help solve the problem of world hunger.
Ahu has collaborated globally with researchers who have expertise in plant genetics.
From 2000 to 2001, Ahu went to Colorado State University as a visiting scientist to work
in the Department of Soil and Crop Science. Then, in 2003, she received support from the
UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship which allowed her to pursue her postdoctoral research at the
Institute of Evolution at Haifa University in Israel. During this time she also was awarded
funding from two other prestigious fellowships, the International Plant Genetic Resources
Institute Vavilov Frankel Fellowship and the Haifa University Research Authority Fellowship.
While at Haifa University, Ahu was promoted to foreign senior researcher before returning
to Turkey as a senior research scientist at the TÜBİTAK (Scientific and Technological Research
Council of Turkey) Marmara Research Center in Gebze, just east of Istanbul.
Kemal Kazan, now a plant science researcher at CSIRO Plant Industry in Brisbane, Australia,
provided guidance for Ahu during her doctoral studies. He notes that he saw in her the
same aspirations that he once had when he was a Master’s student in Turkey. “I think we
both felt somewhat limited in our ability to acquire new knowledge, so we sought new
opportunities elsewhere,” he says.
The Work-Family Balance
Kazan also points out that Ahu has done a “terrific job” in simultaneously managing her family life and a successful scientific career. Turkey is an open, secular society respecting human
rights, but traditionally a woman is still expected to have children soon after marrying, and
her husband’s career often takes priority in the family, notes Kazan. “Ahu has demonstrated
that her family life could indeed go hand in hand with a successful scientific career.” Ahu,
who has been married for nine years to “a highly supportive husband” and has a one-and-ahalf-year-old son, notes that the decision to have children depends on the priorities in one’s
life. “I preferred to wait for some time to have children because I wanted to establish my
career first so that I am able to spend as much time as possible with my child,” she says.
“
Much success simply comes down to hard work.
”
Stress Tolerance and Disease Resistance
Even today, malnutrition remains a major contributor to the total global disease burden,
and more than one-third of child deaths worldwide are due to undernutrition, according
to the World Health Organization. Ahu’s research helps to provide a more stable food
supply through the development of hardy crops able to withstand drought and disease.
She uses plant biotechnology techniques to understand, at the molecular level, how plants
can withstand harsh environmental conditions, such as drought, high salt levels, and
certain diseases. Her laboratory is currently studying the wheat genome, with the hope of
identifying genes and other characteristics that confer resistance to salt stress and a fungal
infection called yellow rust disease. “As a result of our efforts, we aim to create tolerant,
healthy, and disease-resistant plants to provide more food in a world with changing
population and climate,” she says.
34 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
Hard Work and Persistence
Like the crops she studies, Ahu has displayed great resilience in the face of difficulties.
“Even if she fails in some of her challenges, she never gives up. She learns from her past
experiences and tries again,” Kazan says. Nermin Gözükirmizi, who was Ahu’s supervisor
during her Master’s and Ph.D. programs, notes that Ahu was one of her best students “who
knew what she wanted and how to achieve it.” She adds that with her deep intellectual
ability, motivation, and ability to work both alone and with others, Ahu is likely to continue
to succeed in her career.
Ahu, who is now working as a deputy director for the TÜBİTAK
Marmara Research Center Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
Institute, plans to continue doing innovative research, spread
her knowledge in the area of plant biotechnology, and
educate as many students as possible. She advises
budding researchers seeking a career in the sciences to
try to develop their knowledge in their area of interest
and to focus on an appropriate target. “After that, much
success simply comes down to hard work,” she says.
35
Flourishing to the Extreme
her a series of detergents to test.” Some of
the detergents degraded the DNA, but Prudence went to the library to research ways
to improve the experiments and came up
with the idea to include a stabilizing agent
called EDTA. “We went on to use this DNA
isolation approach in the lab, and it worked
beautifully!” she says.
Brutal Environments
A
s a child, Prudence Mutowo could be found playing in the grass under the blistering
sun of her hometown of Mutare, Zimbabwe, gazing at tiny insects, such as lady birds
and red ants, in the palm of her hand. “Regardless of their minuscule size, they had
perfectly formed legs and little heartbeats you could see as you held the insects,” she says. Her
fascination with these petite life forms led her to study biology in high school in Zimbabwe,
where classes on cell structure and function further sparked her interest in even smaller
life forms.
What? Girls Don’t Do Science?
You Can’t Scare Her
However, in high school in Zimbabwe, Prudence says, the common attitude was that
“girls don’t do science.” Rather than letting
this deter her though, it had the opposite effect and brought out the rebel in her: “That
was it—I knew I had to do science!” she
says. Her family, especially her mother, were
highly supportive of her academic choices,
and always encouraged her to challenge
herself. Her science teachers in high school
served as her first role models. “These women were my initial contact with the sciences
and their attitude propelled me forward,
encouraging me in this domain which was
widely perceived to be a male one at that
time,” she says.
After high school, Prudence went on to
study biochemistry at the University of Zimbabwe where her main inspiration was Idah
Sithole-Niang, who helped her become
even more fascinated by the world of molecular biology and biochemistry. “Both her
style of teaching and her research enthusiasm pushed me to dig deeper into the field
of science, ask more questions, and begin
to seriously consider a scientific career,” she
says. Sithole-Niang observes of her former
student that Prudence “does not scare easily” and always showed great initiative. “I had
assigned her a project to isolate genomic
DNA using kitchen ingredients, such as dish
detergent, table salt, and alcohol, and gave
36 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
In 2006, Prudence was awarded a UNESCOL’Oréal Fellowship, which enabled her to
continue on as a Ph.D. student in molecular
biology after she had transferred to the
University of Nottingham in the United
Kingdom. There she studied a special class
of bacteria called Archaea, which are able
to withstand extreme environments, such
as excessive heat, pressure, and acidity. One
group of these bacteria, known as halophiles,
thrives in areas of high salt concentration.
Specifically, Prudence sought to understand
how proteins and DNA in the cell can interact
at such high salt concentrations.
After completing her Ph.D., Prudence has
stayed on at the University of Nottingham as
a postdoctoral research fellow in the School
of Pharmacy, where she is applying her skills
to cancer research in the Department of
Structural Biology and Medicinal Chemistry.
Mentoring a New Generation
Prudence continues to collect awards and
recognition for her work. She was selected
to attend the prestigious Biovision World
Life Sciences Forum in Lyon, France, in
2007, where she was able to meet with five
Nobel Prize winners. She was also named
in Marie Claire’s 2007 survey as one of
the 25 most promising young women in
the UK. Now, as part of the Sci-Tech girls
project, a platform provided by L’Oréal,
she counsels high school students about
pursuing a career in science. “The capacity
to be a mentor to these young girls, who
are asking similar questions to the ones
I had, is what I am most proud of to date,”
she says humbly.
Prudence plans to continue on in cancer
research and says she would also like to
increase her participation in speaking to the
younger generation about scientific careers
and “see more women take up their rightful
place in scientific research.” According to
Prudence, a scientific career is fascinating,
rewarding, and extremely challenging, and
“there is always that added excitement of
working in an area ripe with the potential
of making a discovery that may have a great
impact on all humanity.”
“The capacity to be a mentor to
these young girls, who are
asking similar questions to the
ones I had, is what I am most
proud of to date.”
37
Folk Medicine for the 21st Century
G
rowing up in Birzeit, Palestine, Mary
George Kaileh thought she’d become a pharmacist, like her uncle.
Entering Birzeit University, she planned to
transfer eventually to a college offering a
pharmacy degree—until her unexpected
fascination with molecular biology surfaced.
Hundreds of Helpful Plants
With a Bachelor of Science degree in
biology, Mary became a research assistant
at her university, studying the effects of
medicinal plants on bacteria. In Palestinian
folk medicine, over 700 plant species are botanical pesticides or medicinal herbs.
In 1999, professors from a consortium of Belgian universities visited her lab. Professor
Guy Haegeman invited Mary to a three-month molecular biology training program at
the University of Ghent, and later encouraged her to apply to their doctoral program.
She received one of the consortium’s 10 annual graduate scholarships.
For her Ph.D. in biochemistry, Mary researched potential anti-inflammatory and
antitumor effects of local medicinal plants. “I looked for drugs to reduce the effects of a
particular protein (NFκB), which leads to long-lasting inflammation if it is not properly
regulated,” she explains.
Attacking Inflammation
but after her postdoc experience in the
United States, she better understands her
previous boss’s view.
Having a Balanced Life
Mary hadn’t expected to be one of
only two women in her Ph.D. program.
“In Palestine, 50 percent of university
students are women. I was shocked that,
around the world, the higher you go—at
Ph.D. or professor levels—the lower the
percentage of women scientists. Even
in the US, with all the universities, you
still don’t have many women in science,”
she laments.
But Mary is grateful that she’s able to
continue her studies in the United States.
“Palestine has limited graduate study.
People often don’t have enough money
to go abroad, like I did,” Mary observes.
In Birzeit, Tamer Essawi urged her to
pursue a Ph.D. Mary says that without the
support of both her mentors, Essawi and
Haegeman, “I wouldn’t be here now.”
‘She Will Crack the Problem’
“As a scientist, Mary brings rare intensity,
determination and passion to her work,”
says Ranjan Sen, chief of the NIA’s Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology.
“She exudes the attitude that she will
crack the problem, no matter what it
takes, and wills herself to reach beyond
the easily accessible. Mary is the social life
of our laboratory; her empathy toward
colleagues is unmistakable.”
After her postdoc ends, Mary has a clear
goal: raising funds to start a research lab
at Birzeit University, allowing local people
to pursue graduate degrees. “From my
scholarship, I was able to buy a little equipment. I hope I can do it—it’s so difficult to
find funds, especially for a lab. Most funds
for education in Palestine come from the
European Union, so there is little money
for costly research or expensive molecular biology equipment. With checkpoints
and other obstacles, you can’t be sure
you’ll get back to the lab to finish your
work.” Despite the hurdles, “The women
at our universities are looking to improve
ourselves more and more,” she declares.
Her research focused on Withania somnifera, a plant related to the deadly nightshade
and used to treat wounds and reduce inflammation. “No one knew how it worked. I
was the first person to study the molecular mechanism that controls the protein and
the inflammation,” she says proudly. “But research is very competitive. Before I published my first paper, an article came out by an Indian researcher on the same subject.
At first, it was a shock,” Mary confides. Fortunately, her research team, with more and
broader data, was still able to publish their research in 2007. The research funded by
her UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowship in 2003 helped her complete her data analysis, Mary
notes gratefully. “It’s a very nice program that recognizes women in science.”
She wanted to travel to the United States for a postdoctoral fellowship. “I’d already
tried science in Europe,” notes Mary, who is fluent in English, Palestine’s second
language. As a visiting fellow at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in Baltimore since
March 2007, she studies the biology of certain immune system cells that are the basis
for effective vaccination, hoping to discover new ways to treat disease.
Mary finds that being a researcher in the United States is not like Europe, where
she was encouraged to travel and to maintain a more balanced life. “Here, everything
revolves around your work,” reflects Mary. “My boss in Ghent wanted us to work, but
also to take vacations, to have a more open mind.” She couldn’t see the reason then,
“ Without the support of my mentors, I wouldn’t be here now.”
38 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
39
Additional Online Resources
www.aauw.org
American Association of University Women
www.awis.org
Association for Women in Science
www.braincake.org
Brain Cake: The Girls, Math & Science Partnership
www.engineergirl.org
Engineer Girl - information on engineering for middle
school girls
www.engineeryourlife.org
Engineer Your Life – a guide to engineering for girls in
high school
www.witec-eu.net
European Association for Women in Science,
Engineering and Technology
www.expandingyourhorizons.org
Expanding Your Horizons Program – conferences for
young women
www.girlsgotech.org
Girls Go Tech - introducing young girls to the world of
technology
www.girlstart.org
Girlstart - empowering girls in math, science, engineering,
and technology
www.ifuw.org
International Federation of University Women
www.iitap.iastate.edu/iwise
International Women in Science and Engineering
www.kineticcity.com
Kinetic City - games and experiments that make science
fun for all ages
www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/index.html
NASA - section of the NASA website especially for young
scientists
www.ncwit.org
National Center for Women & Information Technology
www.sbfonline.com/
Science Books & Films guide to science resources
www.scienceareers.org/lorealwis
Science/AAAS and L’Oreal booklets about Women in Science
(download PDF version of this booklet here)
www.scienceclubforgirls.org
Science Club for Girls - increasing the self-confidence and
science literacy of K–12th grade girls
leo.aichi-u.ac.jp/~kunugi/sjws/e1.htm
Society of Japanese Women Scientists
1998 Laureate for Asia-Pacific
Myeong-Hee Yu, Republic of Korea
www.twows.org
Third World Organization for Women in Science
www.webgrrls.com
Webgrrls International
www.womeninbio.org
Women in Bio
The L’Oréal-Unesco Awards honor women scientists
from five continents.
Each year, they are selected by an international jury
www.wise.sunysb.edu
Women in Science and Engineering
presided by a Nobel Prize laureate.
www.witi.com
Women in Technology International
The exceptional quality of their careers has made them
quest.arc.nasa.gov/women/intro.html
Women of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA)
2001 Laureate for Africa & Arab States
Adeyinka Gladys Falusi, Nigeria
role models for the next generation.
Every year, L’Oréal and Unesco grant more
than 160 fellowships to young women researchers
in 50 countries.
2005 Laureate for North America
Myriam Sarachik, USA
Unesco and L’Oréal are convinced that science is
Credits
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Science
needs
women
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40 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
the source of progress for society and that women
have an essential role to play in that progress.
www.forwomeninscience.com
2006 Laureate for Latin America
Esther Orozco, Mexico
2008
2006 Laureate for Europe
Ada Yonath, Israel
– © Corbis.
Science needs women
www.forwomeninscience.com
42 © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.