L'Oreal USA Fellowships For Women In Science Awarded to Five Exceptional Post-Doctoral Female Scientists

NEW YORK, Sept. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- L'Oreal USA celebrated five post-doctoral female scientists as the recipients of the 2012 L'Oreal USA Fellowships For Women in Science at an awards ceremony last evening. This national awards program, created in 2003, supports the advancement of women in the sciences. Criterion included, among other things, an exemplarily commitment to the achievement and advancement of science, technology, engineering and math (S.T.E.M.) under the most promising post-doctoral female scientists across the country.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120914/NY74549 ) 

This year's awards ceremony was held at The Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. The evening program welcomed honorary guests including: City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and Ambassador of France to the United States Francois Delattre.  Also in attendance were members of various Universities, Colleges, and New York City High Schools, as the event was an opportunity to foster interest among the next generation of women scientists.  

"I am delighted to honor these women today," said Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn. "Beyond what these women do in their daily work, they are actually achieving something much larger: they are showing the world that women can excel in anything they want to do. I thank them for their commitment to the sciences and on issues that have the potential to affect the lives of us all. They truly are role models, especially for younger people, and an inspiration to us all to be the best at what we do."

The 2012 Fellows are working on breakthrough scientific research, which address critical global challenges that could aid millions around the world. Their research include:

Christina Agapakis, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, synthetic biologist, is working to engineer new relationships between microorganisms that usually would not find each other in nature.  

Lilian Childress, Yale University, New Haven, CT, physicist, is working in quantum optics the interactions between quantum states of light and mechanical motion.   

Joanna Lynne Kelley, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, geneticist, is working in biological diversity and characterizing specific pathways that underlie adaptive change.  

Erin Marie Williams, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, anthropologist, is working to understand human anatomy by looking at the tools of our early ancestors. 

Jaclyn Winter, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, biochemist, is interested in chemical diversity of biologically active natural products.

Each Fellow receives up to $60,000 to continue their post-doctoral research. Additionally, the L'Oreal USA Fellowships For Women in Science offers professional development workshops for the 2012 Fellows to aid and support these five women to build networks with accomplished female leaders in corporate, academic, governmental and scientific fields. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) facilitates this program.

The L'Oreal USA Fellowships For Women In Science is a national extension of the global L'Oreal–UNESCO For Women in Science program, which, since 1998, has recognized 67 Laureates, two of whom received the Nobel Prize in 2009.  The program has also awarded 864 Fellowships, which have been granted to young women scientists from 93 countries so that they can continue their research projects. The program has become a benchmark of scientific excellence on an international scale, revealing the contributions of these scientific women each year.

For more information, please visit Facebook/L'Oreal USA For Women In Science

ABOUT L'OREAL USA

L'Oreal USA, headquartered in New York City, is the #1 wholly-owned subsidiary of L'Oreal SA, the world's leading beauty company. In addition to corporate headquarters in New York, L'Oreal USA has Research and Innovation and Manufacturing and Distribution facilities across six other states including New Jersey, Kentucky, Arkansas, Illinois, Ohio, and Texas.  L'Oreal's impressive portfolio of brands includes Lancome, Giorgio Armani Beauty, Yves Saint Laurent Beaute, Viktor & Rolf, Diesel, Cacharel, L'Oreal Paris, Garnier, Vichy, La Roche-Posay, L'Oreal Professionnel, Kerastase and Shu Uemura Art of Hair. The U.S. is the base for the product development, international marketing and advertising for L'Oreal's twelve American brands: Maybelline New York, SoftSheen- Carson, Kiehl's Since 1851, Ralph Lauren Fragrances, Essie Cosmetics, Redken 5th Avenue NYC, Matrix, Mizani, Pureology, SkinCeutical, Dermablend and Clarisonic.  For more information on our brands visit http://www.lorealusa.com.  Follow us on Facebook at L'Oreal USA - Corporate Facebook Page and Twitter @LOrealUSACorp.

ABOUT AAAS

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science (www.sciencemag.org) as well as Science Translational Medicine (www.sciencetranslationalmedicine.org) and Science Signaling (www.sciencesignaling.org). AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS (www.aaas.org) is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.

SOURCE L'Oreal USA