Applications for the 2010 L’Oréal Australia For Women In Science Fellowships have now closed.

Below is the April bulletin for 2010.

We’re pleased to include progress reports on our 2009 Fellows. As you will read, their work spans the full extent of space and time—from Marnie’s studies on how genes are controlled, through Tamara’s exploration of dark matter in the Universe, to Zenobia’s use of single grains of sand to time Australia’s pre-history.

More below:

L’Oréal Australia Fellowships in 2010

The $20,000 L’Oréal Australia For Women in Science Fellowships are to help early-career women scientists consolidate their careers and rise to leadership positions.

They are awarded to women who have shown excellence in their scientific careers and who have an appropriate research plan that will be assisted by the one-year Fellowship.

The L’Oréal Australia For Women In Science Fellowships are now in their fourth year. They are supported by the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian National Commission for UNESCO, and are highly competitive.

James Bradfield Moody joins jury panel

Dr James Bradfield Moody has joined the jury panel for the L’Oréal Australia For Women In Science Fellowships representing UNESCO. James, the Executive Director of Development at CSIRO, is currently serving as Chair of Science of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO. He is also a regular panellist on the ABC television program The New Inventors.

In addition to these roles, James is a member of the Advisory Board of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the Advisory Council of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. He is also a board member of the Brisbane Institute in Queensland. His career has included positions at FedSat, the Australian Satellite launched from Japan in 2002, and at Natural Resource Intelligence, which provided organisations with information to assist them to monitor and evaluate land and natural resources. He joined CSIRO in 2004.

Updates from Australian Fellows

The 2009 Fellows are halfway through their Fellowships. Here is what they have achieved.

Marnie Blewitt

Marnie returned to full-time research early in 2010 after the birth of her son Finn in September 2009. While on maternity leave, Marnie’s Fellowship provided money for technical support in her laboratory. This allowed her to establish the special techniques needed to identify the enzymes that switch genes on and off.

Initially, Marnie will test 180 different enzymes for their potential roles in controlling gene activity in blood stem cells. Ultimately, she plans to identify the genes involved in the inactivation of one of the two X chromosomes carried in every female cell.

Marnie has also reached some significant career milestones in recent months. Late last year, she received an Australian Research Council Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship—one of only 20 awarded annually across all disciplines. It will provide her with five years of salary support.

She also became the youngest female laboratory head at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, appointed to lead a research group within the Division of Molecular Medicine.

In addition, she was awarded the inaugural Dyson Fellowship, which provides her with $100,000 a year over five years towards the costs of running her laboratory.

Finally, Marnie attended the National Youth Science Forum in Canberra in January, where she talked to Year 12 students about the role of women in science.

Tamara Davis

Tamara has recently been promoted to a permanent faculty position at the University of Queensland, allowing her to focus on her astronomy research programs. She has published four papers on the huge star explosions known as supernovae and on the large-scale structure of the Universe, and she has several other papers and articles in progress.

Tamara’s Fellowship is primarily being used to finance a workshop which will bring experts together from around the world to develop a research plan to use supernovae data from Australia’s Skymapper telescope  to measure dark matter. Planning is well under way and the workshop will be held in September this year.

Another outcome from her Fellowship is an unexpected collaboration with the radio astronomy community who hope to use the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (currently under construction) and ultimately the forthcoming Square Kilometre Array (to be built in Australia or South Africa) to achieve similar aims.

In August, Tamara is off to Europe to attend a three-week workshop on cosmology as one of 33 invited participants.

Zenobia Jacobs

Zenobia has focused on using her single-grain-of-sand technique to date samples from the eight earliest known archaeological sites in Australia. Once that task is complete, she will apply the same kind of statistical analysis that she previously used on samples from southern Africa. The results of her studies may provide clues to the original human colonisation of Australia.

Zenobia has recently been awarded an Australian Research Council Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship for a project in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.

In November, she became the first woman to win the Sir Nicholas Shackleton medal awarded every two years to a young researcher by the International Union for Quaternary Research. And she has published several papers on her ongoing research projects on the African Stone Age.

International Laureates announced

The winners of the 2010 L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards attended a presentation ceremony in Paris on 4 March 2010.

The five Laureates are:

Africa & the Arab States: Rashika El Ridi, Professor at Cairo University in Egypt, for paving the way towards the development of a vaccine against the tropical disease Schistomiasis/Bilharzia.

Asia-Pacific: Lourdes J. Cruz, Professor at the Marine Science Institute at the University of the Philippines, Diliman in the Philippines, for the discovery of marine snail toxins that can serve as powerful tools to study brain function.

North America: Elaine Fuchs, Professor at The Rockefeller University in the United States, for her contributions to our knowledge of skin biology and skin stem cells.

Europe: Anne Dejean-Assémat, Professor at the Pasteur Institute in France, for her contributions to our understanding of leukaemia and liver cancers.

Latin America: Alejandra Bravo, Professor at the Institute of Molecular Microbiology of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma in Mexico, for her work on a bacterial toxin that acts as a powerful insecticide.

They were chosen from nominations made by a network of almost 1000 members of the international scientific community. A jury of 18 eminent scientists selected the final winners from the shortlisted applicants. They were led by Professor Günter Blobel, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1999,

“For a dozen years, the L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards have recognised and promoted exceptional women who, by the excellence of their research, contribute to the advancement of science.” Professor Blobel said.

“As we announce the laureates of the 2010 Awards, we are very proud to note that two laureates of the 2008 Awards will receive 2009 Nobel Prizes. The L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards laureates are among world’s best scientific talents and will serve as role models for the future of science.”

If you would like more information on L’Oréal’s work overseas or in Australia, please contact Megan Ryan on (03) 8680 0003 or visit www.forwomeninscience.com

In this bulletin:

• 2010 Laureates announced
• Two former Laureates win Nobel Prizes in Medicine and Chemistry
• Prime Minister recognises L’Oréal Fellow with physical sciences prize
• Updates from our 2007 and 2008 Australian Fellows – Tara Telescope in business, and more
• Applying for Australian Fellowships for 2010

International Laureates announced

The winners of the 2010 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards were announced on 14 October 2009.

The five Laureates are:

• Africa & the Arab States: Rashika El Ridi, Professor at Cairo University in Egypt, for paving the way towards the development of a vaccine against the tropical disease Schistomiasis/Bilharzia.
• Asia-Pacific: Lourdes J. Cruz, Professor at the Marine Science Institute at the University of the Philippines Diliman in the Philippines, for the discovery of marine snail toxins that can serve as powerful tools to study brain function.
• North America: Elaine Fuchs, Professor at The Rockefeller University in the United States, for her contributions to our knowledge of skin biology and skin stem cells.
• Europe: Anne Dejean-Assémat, Professor at the Pasteur Institute in France, for her contributions to our understanding of leukaemia and liver cancers.
• Latin America: Alejandra Bravo, Professor at the Institute of Molecular Microbiology of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma in Mexico, for her work on a bacterial toxin that acts as a powerful insecticide.

The Laureates will receive their awards, which will include a US$100,000 prize, on 4 March, 2010 at a ceremony in Paris.

They were chosen from nominations made by a network of almost 1000 members of the international scientific community. A jury of 18 eminent scientists led by Professor Günter Blobel, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1999, selected the final winners from the shortlisted applicants.

Professor Blobel said: “For a dozen years, the L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards have recognized and promoted exceptional women who, by the excellence of their research, contribute to the advancement of science.  As we announce the laureates of the 2010 Awards, we are very proud to note that two laureates of the 2008 Awards will receive 2009 Nobel Prizes.  The L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards laureates are among world’s best scientific talents and will serve as role models for the future of science.”

For more L’Oréal Laureate information: http://www.forwomeninscience.com

2008 L’Oréal Laureates win Nobel Prizes in Medicine and Chemistry

Two former L’Oréal Laureates have won 2009 Nobel Prizes.

Australian-born US scientist Elizabeth Blackburn shares the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine with fellow US researchers Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak “for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.”

From the official announcement:

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to three scientists who have solved a major problem in biology: how the chromosomes can be copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation. The Nobel Laureates have shown that the solution is to be found in the ends of the chromosomes – the telomeres – and in an enzyme that forms them – telomerase.

The long, thread-like DNA molecules that carry our genes are packed into chromosomes, the telomeres being the caps on their ends. Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak discovered that a unique DNA sequence in the telomeres protects the chromosomes from degradation. Carol Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn identified telomerase, the enzyme that makes telomere DNA. These discoveries explained how the ends of the chromosomes are protected by the telomeres and that they are built by telomerase.

Elizabeth was awarded the 2008 L’Oréal-UNESCO Prize For Women in Science for North America.

And Israeli scientist Ada Yonath shares the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with UK researcher Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and US researcher Thomas A. Steitz “for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.”

From the official announcement:

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009 awards studies of one of life’s core processes: the ribosome’s translation of DNA information into life. Ribosomes produce proteins, which in turn control the chemistry in all living organisms. As ribosomes are crucial to life, they are also a major target for new antibiotics.

This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry awards Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath for having showed what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at the atomic level. All three have used a method called X-ray crystallography to map the position for each and every one of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome.

Ada was awarded the 2008 L’Oréal-UNESCO Prize For Women in Science for Europe.

More information on the Nobel Prizes and their winners can be found at

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/ and

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/index.html.

And for L’Oréal Laureate information: http://www.forwomeninscience.com

Prime Minister recognises L’Oréal Fellow

2008 Fellow Amanda Barnard has won the 2009 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year for her work on modelling and predicting the shape, structure and stability of nanoparticles under different environmental conditions.

The AUD$50,000 prize is one of the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science.

Amanda Barnard hopes to predict which nanoparticles will work most efficiently and which could be dangerous. Using supercomputers, she’s making the particles in the virtual world and testing how they interact in various environments before they get made in the real world. Her peers told her it couldn’t be done. But this young scientist proved them wrong and now leads the world in her field of nanomorphology—predicting the shape, structure and stability of nanoparticles.

Amanda’s work as the head of the CSIRO Virtual Nanoscience Laboratory, where she moved earlier this year, has focused on a variety of nanoparticles including the titanium dioxide particles found in photovoltaics in solar cells, sunscreens, and on self-cleaning surfaces; metal nanoparticle fuel catalysts; and diamond nanoparticles as delivery vehicles for chemotherapy. She has published several papers this year and has received a number of other awards and honours including the Mercedes-Benz Environmental Research Award from the Banksia Foundation.

Updates from Australian Fellows

Our three new Fellows are getting to work after receiving their Fellowships in late August. And the 2008 Fellows have completed their Fellowships and handed in their final reports to L’Oréal Australia.

Natalie Borg (2008) has successfully crystallised one domain from her DUBLIN protein, now renamed the Mitochondrial Ubiquitin Ligase activator of NFκB, or MUL1. The domain has some unexpected characteristics which have led her research down new paths, and she expects to publish her initial findings in the near future. Efforts to crystallise the other two domains of the protein are continuing. Natalie says the award has helped her to establish herself as an independent research scientist, and given her the results she needs to apply for an NHMRC Project grant.

Erika Cretney (2008) has made significant progress in understanding how Blimp-1 expression plays a role in the function of T regulatory cells and has presented her results at a number of conferences over the course of the year. A paper describing her research results has recently been submitted for publication. Erika has also found herself in a new role advocating for female scientists at WEHI, which is actively looking at ways to address the gender gap in science.

Angela Moles (2008) says she has had a successful and productive year, with the funding provided by her Fellowship directly contributing to a substantial increase in her research output through the funding of research assistants and the purchase of a new spectrometer. She has two new students working with her—an Honours student, Alicia Bohnen, who has been working in the lab this year as a research assistant, and a PhD student, Ray Blick, who is working on mimicry in mistletoe.  Ray and Angela have commenced a new study looking at whether birds, flowers, butterflies and fish are more colourful in the tropics than in more temperate geographical locations. Angela has recently been promoted to Assistant Professor at the University of New South Wales.

Ilana Feain (2007) says the telescope at Sydney girls’ high school Tara is now up and running with a CCD camera, and staff and students are learning the ropes. A purpose-built spectrograph will be installed in the near future and next year all four of the telescopes, located in Australia, Chile, South Africa and India will be commissioned, and the Global Jet Watch program’s research will begin in earnest.

Sarah Pryke (2007) received a lot of international publicity earlier this year for her Science paper about the sex determination of Gouldian finches.

L’Oréal Australia Fellowships in 2010

L’Oréal Australia will offer three fellowships in 2010 valued at $20,000 each.

The same process will be followed as in 2009. All applicants will complete an online application. They will not have to collect references. Instead, we will contact only the referees of shortlisted applicants and seek closed references. We anticipate opening applications in April 2010 for one month. Shortlisted applicants will be notified by email in mid-May and will have two weeks to send in supporting materials. The judges will make their final decision by mid-July and winners will be announced in late August.

More details will be provided in March 2010.

Where did we come from; how are we made; and how will it all end?

These fundamental questions are being tackled by the 2009 L’Oréal Australia For Women in Science Fellows who received their Fellowship from Mark Tucker, CEO of L’Oréal Australia, at a ceremony at L’Oréal’s Australian head office in Melbourne on Tuesday 25 August.

The Fellows are:

• Tamara Davis, University of Queensland, Brisbane/University of Copenhagen
• Marnie Blewitt, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne
• Zenobia Jacobs, University of Wollongong

They will receive their Fellowships from Mark Tucker, Managing Director of L’Oréal Australia, at a ceremony at L’Oréal’s Australian head office in Melbourne at 6pm on Tuesday 25 August.

“These three young women are tackling big questions. They already have remarkable research records. Each receives a $20,000 Fellowship which we hope will help them through the most challenging part of any science career-the transition from PhD to independent researcher,” says Mark Tucker.

This is the third year of the L’Oréal Australia For Women in Science Fellowships. The Fellows were chosen from 111 applicants by a group of eminent scientists. The Fellowship funds are intended to further their research and may be used for any associated expenses, including childcare.

The three recipients are:

Tamara Davis – On the hunt for dark energy

Tamara Davis, University of Queensland / University of Copenhagen (Photo credit: timothyburgess.net)

The stuff we can see in the night sky makes up just four per cent of the Universe. The rest consists of dark matter and dark energy, but what these are made of remains a mystery. Tamara Davis will use supernovae to find dark energy.

The discovery in 1998 that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating required a rethink of cosmology. Tamara is trying to put the pieces back together again. She will use the new Australian Skymapper telescope to find hundreds of supernovae and use these to detect the influence of dark energy on gravity.

“Supernovae are extremely bright stellar explosions. Because we know how bright they are we can use them as ’standard candles’ to accurately measure distance and motion across the Universe,” Tamara says.

[go to Tamara's full profile and you tube video]

Zenobia Jacobs – How did we get here? Dating our movement out of Africa one grain of sand at a time

Zenobia Jacobs, University of Wollongong (photo credit: timothyburgess.net)

Zenobia Jacobs uses single grains of sand to accurately date the first signs of human society: engineering, art and communities. Last week Science reported on her dating of the first engineers. They were using fire to harden stone axes 75,000 years ago.

Each grain of sand contains a ‘clock’ that records how long the grain has been buried in the ground. Zenobia has perfected a technique for reading this clock accurately up to 500,000 years ago.

Now, with her L’Oréal Fellowship she will turn to the vexed question: when did humans first settle Australia?

[go to Zenobia's full profile and you tube video]

Marnie Blewitt – It takes more than genes to make a human

Marnie Blewitt The Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne

The Human Genome program revealed that it takes 30,000 genes to make a human. But that’s not the full story. Marnie Blewitt wants to know more, “How does a cell know which of its 30,000 or so genes should be active and which should be dormant?” she asks.

“How does the keratin gene get turned on in hair follicle cells but not in the cells of the eye?”

Marnie, a researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne is using the X chromosome as a tool to pry open the secrets of epigenetics-how our genes get turned on and off. The Fellowship will contribute to a lab assistant and childcare. Marnie is expecting her first child in September.

[go to Marnie's full profile and you tube video]

To see the full stories and photos click on the following links:

• Tamara Davis, University of Queensland, Brisbane/University of Copenhagen
• Marnie Blewitt, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne
• Zenobia Jacobs, University of Wollongong

Call Niall Byrne on 03 9398 1416 / 0417 131 977 for interviews.

The public site at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/loreal will be open from 6 pm on 25 August

Update (26 August 2009) Photos from the presentation ceremony:

Tamara Davis with Fellowship

Marnie Blewitt with Fellowship

Fellows with Mark Tucker, Managing Director of L’Oréal Australia

Fellows with Science in Public Director Niall Byrne and Science in Public Project Officer Melissa Trudinger

In this bulletin:

• Applications open for L’Oréal Australia and International Fellowships
• The 2009 Laureates receive their prizes in Paris
• Malaysian PhD wins international fellowship to study at UNSW
• Updates from our 2008 Australian Fellows

Applications open 1 April for this year’s L’Oréal Australia For Women in Science Fellowships

Applications for the 2009 L’Oréal Australia For Women in Science Fellowships will open on 1 April 2009.

The Fellowships are open to early career women generally no more than five years past their PhD, excluding periods of maternity leave.

• Further details including instructions, full eligibility criteria, and a link to the online application form (from 1 April) can be found at www.scienceinpublic.com/loreal

Nominations for the 2010 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards have opened. Please note that this is a closed nomination process, all nominations are made by an international network of scientists and winners selected by a jury.

Nominations for the 2010 UNESCO- L’ORÉAL International Fellowships will open in March.

The International Fellowships are worth US$40,000 over two years and are available to female doctoral and post-doctoral scientists under 35 years old with a focus on Life Sciences to study at an institution outside Australia. Three of the 15 International Fellowships will be awarded in the Asia-Pacific Region, which includes Australia.

Please note that applications for the International Fellowships are coordinated by the Australian National Commission for UNESCO at the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade.  Applications close on 30 June 2009.

• The application form can be downloaded from www.unesco.org/en/fellowships/loreal

2009 Laureates to be awarded their prizes in Paris in March

Five of the world’s women leaders in science each received the $US100,000 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards For Women in Science at a ceremony in Paris recently.

The Award ceremony was part of a week-long celebration of women in science.

The winners showcase a diverse range of scientific specialties reflecting this year’s “Physical Sciences” theme, from materials science and nanotechnology to astronomy.

The five Laureates include:

§  Africa & the Arab States: Tebello Nyokong, Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Rhodes University in South Africa, for her work on harnessing light for cancer therapy and for environmental clean-up.

§  Asia-Pacific: Akiko Kobayashi, Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry, College of Humanities and Sciences at Nihon University in Japan, for her contribution to the development of molecular conductors and the design and synthesis of a single-component molecular metal.

§  North America: Eugenia Kumacheva, Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto in Canada, for the design and development of new materials with many applications including targeted drug delivery for cancer treatments and materials for high density optical data storage.

§  Europe: Athene M. Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory in the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, for her work in unravelling the mysteries of the physics of messy materials, ranging from cement to starch.

§  Latin America: Beatriz Barbuy, Professor at the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, for her work on the life of stars from the birth of the universe to the present time.

Further details on each winner can be found at www.forwomeninscience.com

They were chosen from nominations made by a network of almost 1000 members of the international scientific community. A jury of 17 eminent scientists led by 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recipient Professor Ahmed Zewail selected the final winners from the shortlisted applicants.

2009 International Fellow will be based in Australia

Malaysian medical microbiologist Yean Yean Chan has received a UNESCO-L’Oréal International Fellowship to support a research project at the University of New South Wales.

Yean Yean-who is currently completing a PhD at the Universiti Sains Malaysia-will spend six months in Professor Justin Gooding’s laboratory in the School of Chemistry.

Her project there will focus on developing a DNA-coated electrode that can be used to rapidly detect tiny amounts of DNA from bacteria or viruses in blood and other body fluids.  Ultimately, Yean Yean hopes to develop faster and cheaper diagnostic devices for infectious diseases based on this technology.

The International Fellowships are awarded to 15 early stage researchers allowing them to pursue research at a host institute outside their country.

Update on 2008 Australian Fellows

Amanda Barnard

Amanda has accepted a position to lead CSIRO’s new Virtual Nanoscience Laboratory in Clayton, Victoria. Her new research team will study the environmental stability of nanoparticles, and link it with studies on toxicity and human health in collaboration with the Nanosafety Theme leader Maxine McCall.

She was recently awarded the JG Russel Award by the Australian Academy of Sciences, recognising her successful application for the ARC QEII Fellowship as one of the best for 2009, as well as RMIT’s 2008 Alumnus of the Year Award. Amanda also gave a keynote speech to young scientists attending the National Youth Science Forum in January.

Amanda’s work has been progressing quickly, with several publications in press and some promising data to analyse.

Natalie Borg

Natalie has been busy trying to get her DUBLIN protein-which has been officially renamed MUL1, short for mitochondrial ubiquitin ligase activator of NFκB-made in various kinds of cells, so that she can use protein crystallography to look at the shape of the protein and how it interacts with other proteins.

Angela Moles

Angela is busy planning a field trip with her new PhD student to sample mistletoes and their hosts in locations from Sydney to Broken Hill. On the way, she will be talking with students and involving them in the sample collection as part of her involvement with the Australian Institute of Policy and Science’s Tall Poppy Campaign.

She has several publications in press, has been invited to present her work at conferences and seminar series both locally and overseas, and recently received a JG Russel Award from the Australian Academy of Sciences recognising her ARC QEII Fellowship.

Erika Cretney

Erika has had two papers published on her regulatory T cells research and another on its way.

She presented her research findings at three conferences last year including: a plenary talk at the International Conference on regulatory T cells and Clinical Application in Human Diseases conference in Beijing; and local presentations at the 16th Annual Conference of the Immunology Group of Victoria; and the Australasian Society for Immunology’s annual conference in Canberra.

In this bulletin

• - The 2009 international FWIS laureates announced
• - Update on Australian Fellows – Gouldian finches, black holes and more
• - French Fellow studying at QIMR
• - Plans for the Australian Fellowships in 2009

International Laureates

The winners of the 2009 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards were announced last week.

The five Laureates are:

• Africa & the Arab States: Prof. Tebello Nyokong, Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Rhodes University in South Africa, for her work on harnessing light for cancer therapy and for environmental clean-up.
• Asia-Pacific: Prof. Akiko Kobayashi, Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry, College of Humanities and Sciences at Nihon University in Japan, for her contribution to the development of molecular conductors and the design and synthesis of a single-component molecular metal.
• North America: Prof. Eugenia Kumacheva, Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto in Canada, for the design and development of new materials with many applications including targeted drug delivery for cancer treatments and materials for high density optical data storage.
• Europe: Prof. Athene M. Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory in the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, for her work in unravelling the mysteries of the physics of messy materials, ranging from cement to starch.
• Latin America: Prof. Beatriz Barbuy, Professor at the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, for her work on the life of stars from the birth of the universe to the present time.

The Laureates will receive their awards, which will include a US$100,000 prize, on 5 March, 2009 at a ceremony in Paris.

They were chosen from nominations made by a network of almost 1000 members of the international scientific community. A jury of 17 eminent scientists led by 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recipient Professor Ahmed Zewail selected the final winners from the shortlisted applicants.

“It is a pleasure to be the president of the jury,” says Professor Zewail.  “There is no doubt that the programme’s goal of identifying women notable for their scientific excellence is of major importance to the future of science and our world.”

Update on 2007 and 2008 Australian Fellows

September and October were busy months for our L’Oréal Australia For Women in Science Fellowship winners.

September saw the 2007 Fellows wrap up their programs, while the 2008 Fellows got things underway after the excitement of receiving the awards in late August.

Natalie Borg (2008) says she has received several invitations to present her work around town, including seminars at Monash University and participation in the Careers Catwalk at the AusBiotech National Conference. And she’s parlayed a radio interview on 3RRR’s science show Einstein A GoGo into regular reporting.

Angela Moles (2008) says the Fellowship has made a huge difference to her research program already, with the recruitment of a top-flight PhD student from New Zealand to help out with the mimicry in the mistletoe project. She’s recently received an ARC Discovery Grant worth $730,000 and a QEII Fellowship to go with it. And the NSW government awarded her a Tall Poppy award. Appearances on ABC TV’s Catalyst and the Science Show have rounded out a flurry of media appearances following the awards ceremony in August.

Erika Cretney (2008) has already attended two conferences, one in Victoria and one in Beijing, China, thanks to her Fellowship. At the Chinese conference she was invited to give a plenary seminar, which she says is a great boost to the confidence as she only moved into the area of research into regulatory T cells a year ago. Her research is coming along nicely she says, and two papers have been accepted for publication. A guest spot on Einstein A GoGo has completed her media appearances following the award.

Amanda Barnard (2008) has purchased the most important software for her modelling and has begun work, thanks to a generous grant of supercomputer time from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) National Facility in Canberra. Ever busy, she has also had five research papers accepted for publication, and has been awarded an ARC Discovery Grant and QEII Fellowship worth $775,000 to support her work on the environmental stability of nanoscale materials for catalysis and sensing and has started looking at platinum nanoparticle catalysts. She has also been a guest speaker on radio programs Einstein A GoGo, and Up Close, and was the speaker for the recent Women in Physics Dinner hosted by the Australian Institute of Physics.

Sarah Pryke (2007) has spent much of this year in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, where she has been testing whether the Gouldian finches will accept artificial breeding boxes in lieu of the increasingly scarce nesting hollows in eucalyptus trees. The project has been a resounding success and she is busy developing a nest box sponsorship program. Recent counts of the Gouldian Finch population resulted in a record high of more than 700 finches seen one morning at one waterhole. In between field activities, Sarah has taken on a new PhD student to look at the effects of fire on flora and fauna in the Kimberley, and presented her work both locally and internationally.

Ilana Feain (2007) has been continuing her research into the formation and evolution of supermassive black holes, including a local member, SS433, and Centaurus A, which is in a nearby galaxy. With the Global Jet Watch program, she has been instrumental in setting up a round-the-clock observation facility to monitor SS433 at a Sydney girls high school, Tara. The observation dome was completed in July and the telescope should be delivered and installed in a few weeks. The observation program will begin early next year. Ilana is also planning a conference in Australia to bring together Centaurus A researchers during the International Year of Astronomy next year. Her L’Oréal Australia Fellowship, she says, has had a big impact on her career, with a recent promotion to project scientist for the $100 million Australian SKA Pathfinder radio telescope being built in WA, as well as a growing reputation as an expert on astronomical matters.

Jenny Gunton (2007) has recently gone on maternity leave after the birth of Nicolas in late September.

Catriona Bradshaw (2007) has recently gone on maternity leave.

French Fellow in Australia

A French PhD student studying jointly at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and French research Institute INSERM at the Institut Gustave Roussy in Paris has been awarded a L’Oréal France-UNESCO For Women in Science Award to further her research into skin cancer. Marina Kvaskoff received her €10,000 award on November 17 in Paris. The award is the equivalent of the L’Oréal Australia For Women in Science Fellowship program.

Marina’s research under Prof. Adèle Green in the Cancer and Population Studies group focuses on possible hormonal, nutritional and genetic causes of cutaneous melanoma.

L’Oréal Australia Fellowships in 2009

L’Oréal Australia will offer three fellowships in 2009 valued at $20,000 each.

We will introduce a two-stage application in 2009 that will streamline the process for both applicants and judges.

All applicants will complete an online application. They will not have to collect references. Instead, we will contact only the referees of shortlisted applicants and seek closed references. We anticipate opening applications in April for one month. Shortlisted applicants will be notified by email mid-May and will have two weeks to send in supporting materials. The judges will make their final decision by mid-July.

More details will be provided early in 2009.