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Six women, but above all six young Italian scientists who represent the future of research, with a bright and promising present. They are the winners of the For Women and Science award, established by L’Oréale and UNESCO, now in its nineteenth edition and which saw the participation of 320 under 35 candidates from all over Italy.
In the presence of the Minister for Equal Opportunities and the Elena Bonetti Family, six scholarships worth 20 thousand euros each were awarded to as many researchers on the basis of the excellence recognized for their projects in the fields of life and material sciences. Since 1998, 3,600 female researchers have been supported in their career in 117 countries. Five of these scientists, after winning the L’Oréal-UNESCO prize, have been awarded the Nobel Prize: among them Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020.
The jury, composed of a panel of distinguished Italian university professors and scientific experts and chaired by Professor Lucia Votano, Research Director emeritus of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, after a careful evaluation selected the six researchers more deserving for their STEM projects.
Here’s who I am:
Livia Archibugi
Project – Pancreatic cancer: hunting for molecular mechanisms that predict the response to chemotherapy.
Host Institute: San Raffaele Hospital (Milan), Clinical and Translational Research Center on the Pancreas, Biliopancreatic Endoscopy and Ecoendoscopy Unit.
Elisa Pellegrini
Project – Death of reed beds and climate change: where is the link?
Host institution: Department of Agri-Food, Environmental and Animal Department of the University of Udine, Soil Biochemistry Laboratory.
Letizia De Chiara
Project – Renal polyploid cells: a new tool for the prevention of chronic kidney disease.
Host Institute: Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences-University of Florence.
Ornella Juliana Piccinni
Project – Away with the wave: detection of extreme objects as remains of gravitational wave events in the data of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA interferometers.
Host Institute: National Institute of Nuclear Physics.
Natalia Bruno
Project – AQTRESS – Atomic Quantum Technologies for Reliable Engineering of Solid State devices – Atomic quantum technologies for the design of solid state devices.
Host Institute: National Institute of Optics of the National Research Council (CNR-INO) based at the Scientific Pole of Sesto Fiorentino, European Laboratory of Non-linear Spectroscopy (LENS) and Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Florence.
Lorena Baranda Pellejero
Project – Synthesis of functional molecules mediated by clinically relevant biomarkers through the use of systems based on synthetic DNA.
Host Institute: University of Rome Tor Vergata, Department of Chemical Sciences and Technologies, Laboratory of Biosensors and Nanomachines.
Francois-Xavier Fenart, President and CEO of L’Oréal Italia, commented on the 2021 edition as follows: “This year we all had a clear awareness of how necessary scientific research is. Indeed, it is science that has provided us with the answer to tackle a global pandemic that had frozen our lives. This is why this year we are particularly proud to reward these six young researchers, so that they can carry out their research projects in Italy and so that they become role models, examples to follow and emulate, for their colleagues and for all. young women and girls. To date we have awarded 100 scholarships in Italy, an important milestone that pushes us to continue to engage in this path that began nineteen years ago, convinced that female researchers can and should contribute to scientific progress and that they are crucial to achieving the objectives. of sustainable development on which to build our future “.
Enrico Vicenti, Secretary General of the Italian National Commission for UNESCO, declares: “Katalin Karikó, also known as KK, is the Hungarian biochemist and researcher who has dedicated her career to the development of the innovative gene therapy based on mRNA, used for the first COVID-19 vaccine. She is an exceptional ambassador of our motto “The world needs science and science needs women” as well as a shining example, for the young researchers awarded today and in previous editions, and for all women, of what their contribution is important for our future. Having only a third of female researchers worldwide, of which very few in top positions, is a huge waste of talent and opportunities: the UNESCO – L’Oréal Award “For Women and Science” in the last 19 years advance on the times actively contributed to support young researchers in their research projects and in their professional career. Gender inequality in research and STEM disciplines is still very large, together with L’Oréal we want to continue to do our part to reduce it ”.
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