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São Paulo – One Brazilian and one Moroccan scientist are among the winners of this year’s edition of the For Women in Science Awards granted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) and L’Oreal Foundation. Thaisa Storchi Bergmann, from Brazil, and Rajaâ Cherkaroui El Moursli, from Morocco, will receive the awards in a ceremony set for next Wednesday (18th) in Paris, France.<\/p>\n
Both of them were chosen in the prize’s main category, which awards one scientist per region. Bergmann’s work was selected in Latin America and Moursli’s research in Africa and Arab countries. Also, 15 young researchers were selected, from all parts of the world, to receive scholarships.<\/p>\n
The Brazilian is a professor and researcher at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in the subjects of Physics and Astronomy. Among the studies that brought her the prize is a research about how black holes influence the evolution of galaxies through matter accumulation and ejection around it. She works at UFRGS’s Physics Institute.<\/p>\n
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The Moroccan is a professor at Mohammed V University, in Rabat, and works with High Energy Physics and Nuclear Physics. Moursli contributed in one of the great discoveries in Physics, which provided evidence of the Higgs Boson, the particle responsible for the creation of the universe’s mass. According to Unesco, she is working for the improvement of quality of scientific investigation in her country, contributing to the local health system with the creation of the first Master’s degree course of Medical Physics in Morocco.<\/p>\n
Also selected for the award were scientist Yi Xie, from China, in the Asia\/Pacific region, for her research with inorganic chemistry, the British Dame Carol Robinson, in Europe, for her work in macromolecular mass spectrometry, which is the identification of molecules in the proteins universe, and Molly Shoichet, from Canada, in North America, for repercussions of her work with photochemistry for the regeneration of nervous system.<\/p>\n
Since 1998, the program For Women in Science already acknowledged 2,250 women in more than 110 countries. According to Unesco, it’s necessary for the world to improve in gender balance in science, since, currently, only 30% of researchers in the world are women.<\/p>\n
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani<\/strong><\/p>\n