2 Filipino scientists win L'Oreal awards
By INA HERNANDO-MALIPOT
October 1, 2011
Manila Bulletin
MANILA, Philippines — Two Filipino woman scientists were Saturday honored as the first National Fellows by L’Oreal’s For Women in Science (FWIS) awards.
The two – Dr. Maria Corazon de Ungria and Dr. Laura T. David – were cited for making a name for themselves and for overcoming biases and the seeming lack of opportunities to maximize the use of their potentials in the world of science.
De Ungria and David were awarded fellowship grants worth P400,000 each, after the judging by jury chaired by Prof. Lourdes Cruz, the first Filipino and first ASEAN Laureate of the FWIS L’Oréal-United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Awards.
De Ungria is a professorial lecturer for the Science and Technology Series at the College of Science and head of the DNA Analysis Laboratory of the Natural Sciences Research Institute of the University of the Philippines. She was awarded the FWIS National Fellowship grant for her research proposal in Mitochondrial DNA Diversity of Philippine Negrito Populations. The project is part of an overall program aiming to study Philippine genetic diversity for anthropological, forensic and medical applications.
David is a professor at the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines and is an active member in the Technical Committee on Climate Change of the Philippine National Academy of Science and Technology and IGBP-Land Ocean Interaction in the Coastal Zone Project SEAsia Node Core group. Her research proposal in Endeavoring for Wise Mariculture, a study of the different regions of the Philippines vis-à-vis their physical characteristics to evaluate the appropriateness of sites to set up a mariculture park, won her the prestigious award.
For over a decade, FWIS, in collaboration with the UNESCO, is the first of its kind award program, aiming to promote excellence among young woman scientists worldwide.
In past years, it was one of the most anticipated annual events in the scientific community in more than 93 countries. To date, nearly 1,100 women have received FWIS awards – 67 laureates from 30 countries, and over 1,000 fellowship awardees.
The awards, which started 12 years ago, came about because the field of science has traditionally been a man’s world. Since 1901, there were over 300 recipients of the Nobel Prize in the sciences but only 10 of them – about 3 percent – were women.
In 2010, L’Oréal Philippines, in partnership with other participating countries joined the battlecry, “The world needs science... Science needs women,” bringing the ambitious program to the local scene. FWIS National Fellowships – Philippines 2010, in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) and UNESCO Philippines was launched to search for exceptional women in the Life and Material Sciences.
L’Oréal Philippines Managing Director Luc Olivier-Marque said scientific excellence is always at the heart of L’Oréal. “We invest heavily in research and innovation to ensure that we provide the best in the cosmetics industry,” he said.
The two – Dr. Maria Corazon de Ungria and Dr. Laura T. David – were cited for making a name for themselves and for overcoming biases and the seeming lack of opportunities to maximize the use of their potentials in the world of science.
De Ungria and David were awarded fellowship grants worth P400,000 each, after the judging by jury chaired by Prof. Lourdes Cruz, the first Filipino and first ASEAN Laureate of the FWIS L’Oréal-United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Awards.
De Ungria is a professorial lecturer for the Science and Technology Series at the College of Science and head of the DNA Analysis Laboratory of the Natural Sciences Research Institute of the University of the Philippines. She was awarded the FWIS National Fellowship grant for her research proposal in Mitochondrial DNA Diversity of Philippine Negrito Populations. The project is part of an overall program aiming to study Philippine genetic diversity for anthropological, forensic and medical applications.
David is a professor at the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines and is an active member in the Technical Committee on Climate Change of the Philippine National Academy of Science and Technology and IGBP-Land Ocean Interaction in the Coastal Zone Project SEAsia Node Core group. Her research proposal in Endeavoring for Wise Mariculture, a study of the different regions of the Philippines vis-à-vis their physical characteristics to evaluate the appropriateness of sites to set up a mariculture park, won her the prestigious award.
For over a decade, FWIS, in collaboration with the UNESCO, is the first of its kind award program, aiming to promote excellence among young woman scientists worldwide.
In past years, it was one of the most anticipated annual events in the scientific community in more than 93 countries. To date, nearly 1,100 women have received FWIS awards – 67 laureates from 30 countries, and over 1,000 fellowship awardees.
The awards, which started 12 years ago, came about because the field of science has traditionally been a man’s world. Since 1901, there were over 300 recipients of the Nobel Prize in the sciences but only 10 of them – about 3 percent – were women.
In 2010, L’Oréal Philippines, in partnership with other participating countries joined the battlecry, “The world needs science... Science needs women,” bringing the ambitious program to the local scene. FWIS National Fellowships – Philippines 2010, in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) and UNESCO Philippines was launched to search for exceptional women in the Life and Material Sciences.
L’Oréal Philippines Managing Director Luc Olivier-Marque said scientific excellence is always at the heart of L’Oréal. “We invest heavily in research and innovation to ensure that we provide the best in the cosmetics industry,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment