UNESCO-L'Oréal Fellowships Awards for 15 female scientists

The UNESCO and the cosmetics company L'Oréal Wednesday awarded annual fellowships to 15 promising young women scientists in the 10th edition of the L'Oréal-UNESCO “For Women in Science” Awards.

The awards are part of their efforts to foster global scientific cooperation, according to a statement of the United Nations.

The recipients join a group of 120 fellows from 67 countries who have benefited from the UNESCO-L'Oréal Fellowships.

These allow doctoral and post-doctoral female scientists to conduct research in laboratories outside their home countries, since the programme’s inauguration in 2000.

The fellowships seek to promote cross-cultural networks, and candidates’ projects are forwarded to the selection committee by UNESCO National Commissions.

The research topics selected often pertain to local populations’ needs or original fields of research such as the characterization of a protein with healing properties that is produced by catfish.

UNESCO and L'Oréal joined forces in 1998 to create the “Women in Science” initiative and in the years since its establishment has become one of the key programmes promoting women’s contributions in science.

In addition to the fellowships awarded, five outstanding women scientists, one from each continent, are chosen every year to receive the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science to serve as role models for future generations.

Four of this year’s recipients represent countries new to the programme: Gabon, Mongolia, Nepal and Slovenia.

The other countries of origin of the winners are Mozambique, South Africa and Morocco in Africa. Argentina, Brazil and Colombia in South-America. Indonesia, Kuwait, Lebanon in Asia and Italy and the Netherlands in Europe.

The 2008 honourees will be announced Tuesday at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s headquarters in Paris.