L’Oréal USA recently announced the 2011 recipients of Fellowships for Women in Science, a national awards program aimed at supporting the advancement of women in science and encouraging them to continue careers in scientific fields.
The 2011 Fellows were selected from a competitive pool of candidates by an interdisciplinary review panel and a distinguished jury of nine eminent scientists and engineers. The Fellows were selected based on several criteria, including exceptional academic records and intellectual merit, clearly-articulated research proposals with the potential for scientific advancement and outstanding letters of recommendation from advisers and overall excellence. The peer-review process was managed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
The L’Oreal USA Fellowships for Women in Science Award ceremony will take place in the Kennedy Caucus room in Washington DC on September 15.
The five recipients for 2011 Fellowships are:
Dr. Trisha Andrew, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA – organic chemist in the field of organic electronics. The L’Oréal USA Fellowship for Women in Science award will help Dr. Andrew investigate the interaction of organic chromophores with interesting optoelectronic materials known as “quantum dots” and fabricate unique light-emitting diodes and solar cells from these composite materials.
Dr. Karlin Bark, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA – mechanical engineer in the field of haptics. The L’Oréal USA Fellowship for Women in Science award will allow Dr. Bark to study the potential use of haptic feedback in stroke rehabilitation.
Dr. Sasha Devore, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY – neuroscientist examining health sciences and technology. With the support of the L’Oréal USA Fellowship for Women in Science award, Dr. Devore will employ techniques for selectively activating and recording from large ensembles of neurons in behaving animals in order to study the function of feedback pathways in sensory processing.
Dr. R. Blythe Towal, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA – biomedical engineer in the field of computational neuroscience. With the support of the L’Oréal USA Fellowship For Women In Science award, Dr. Towal will design and build novel instruments to measure human eye movements during normal, active-sensing behavior as opposed to the highly artificial conditions of the laboratory.
Dr. Tijana Ivanovic, Harvard Medical School, with work to be carried out at the University of Colorado at Boulder – virologist in the research field of virus entry into cells. The L’Oréal USA Fellowship For Women In Science award will enable Dr. Ivanovic to build a custom Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) microscope and use it to study the fusion mechanism of the influenza virus by visualizing the fusion process of individual virus particles in real time.
Since the program’s inception in 2003, L’Oréal USA has recognized and awarded research grants to 40 post-doctoral women scientists in the life and physical/material sciences, as well as mathematics, engineering and computer science. The program aims to raise awareness of the contribution of women to the sciences and identify exceptional female researchers in the U.S. to serve as role models for younger generations.