Winners
2023
2023 Science Outreach Winner
SwaTaleem works with historically underrepresented girls in India: first generation learners, caste and religious minorities, low socio-economic backgrounds, with outcomes like high school dropouts and early forced marriages. Rural Indian females from historically disadvantaged castes are known to be 38% less likely to study science in school and face strong gender stereotypes and resistance to study STEM.
We encourage girls to engage with and study natural sciences and increase their retention in STEM areas throughout their schooling. Through the Main Bhi Curie program’s STEM-gender-life skills curriculum, we aim to build STEM awareness, confidence, and engagement in girls. The curriculum covers 26 themes: 18 science and 8 gender themes. Furthermore, we train local village women to implement it in schools. Every cycle culminates with a Science Gender Mela/Fair where girls present their scientific models to their villages and government officials.
2023 Scientific Achievement Winner
Hortense Le Ferrand is the assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She leads a dynamic and diverse research team in the fields of materials science, mechanics, and engineering. Together, they aim to create materials and structures for a more sustainable world.
They develop manufacturing strategies to create structural materials with multifunctional properties through the design of their microstructures. These designs are largely inspired by those found in natural composites but adapted to engineered materials, processes, and applications. Their research is multidisciplinary across physico-chemistry, material science and mechanics, and at multiple length scales, in particular the micro, meso and macroscale. Their collaborators are architects, product designs, biologists, and educators.
2023 Scientific Achievement Runner Up
Xiwen Gong is an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering, and by courtesy an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Macromolecular Science & Engineering, and Applied Physics. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, USA, Xiwen worked as a post-doctoral fellow with Zhenan Bao at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University. At Stanford, Xiwen focused on developing the soft and stretchable semiconductors and devices for wearable electronics (inSPIREd Talk).
In 2018, Xiwen gained her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering with Ted Sargent at the University of Toronto. During her PhD, Xiwen focused on the design of novel materials for solar energy harvesting, light emitting, and sensing. Xiwen was the recipient of the Extraordinary Potential Prize and the “Rising Stars in EECS 2017” (Stanford University). She is currently a senior Schmidt Science Fellow (inaugural) and Amazon Physical Science Fellow.
2023 Scientific Achievement Judges' Special Commendation
Mary Amoako, nee Adjepong, is a lecturer and Registered Dietician in the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. Her research focuses on the role of diet in the progression of chronic diseases while proposing and implementing interventions in vulnerable groups. She has specialized in whole blood fatty acid analysis among children below five years and mineral and lipid analysis in food.
She continues to explore the physiological roles of essential fatty acids in growth, cognition and ocular health, while proposing and implementing food based approaches to improve health and wellbeing in vulnerable populations. As a nutrition advocate she takes delight in guiding individuals, families and organizations to make healthy diet and lifestyle choices in several populations. She is committed to mentoring individuals especially in food security, nutrition and health.
2023 Shortlist
2023 Science Outreach Shortlist
Ideas en Acción is a Costa Rican non-governmental organization that identifies, executes and spreads collaborative innovation programs with high potential of replicability and relevance. The base of our work is “collaborative innovation” with the purpose of empowering change-makers for the 4th Industrial Revolution, making sure nobody is left behind.
The MenTe Network (Red MenTe) has graduated 1092 women from a variety of programs . As our flagship project, the Network serves as an umbrella for these programs s that empower women of different ages to pursue a career in STEAM. A few examples include; Niñas hacia el espacio, MenTe en Acción and Women in Action.
2023 Scientific Achievement Shortlist
Mary Amoako, nee Adjepong, is a lecturer and Registered Dietician in the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. Her research focuses on the role of diet in the progression of chronic diseases while proposing and implementing interventions in vulnerable groups. She has specialized in whole blood fatty acid analysis among children below five years and mineral and lipid analysis in food.
She continues to explore the physiological roles of essential fatty acids in growth, cognition and ocular health, while proposing and implementing food based approaches to improve health and wellbeing in vulnerable populations. As a nutrition advocate she takes delight in guiding individuals, families and organizations to make healthy diet and lifestyle choices in several populations. She is committed to mentoring individuals especially in food security, nutrition and health.
The International Veterinary Vaccinology Network (IVVN) is an international network of over 1800 members that establishes multi-partnered collaborations to bring together the diverse skills needed to accelerate the development of vaccines for devastating diseases of livestock. Launched under the banner, the IVVN African Schools Outreach Program (IVVN-ASOP) aims to inspire the next generation of women scientists in Africa by providing those working in veterinary vaccinology across Africa with the training and resources to host schools outreach workshops in their own countries. IVVN-ASOP also supports collaboration among female scientists, in the delivery of these outreach activities, contributing to the formation of support network for women scientists in Africa.
Xiwen Gong is an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering, and by courtesy an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Macromolecular Science & Engineering, and Applied Physics. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, USA, Xiwen worked as a post-doctoral fellow with Zhenan Bao at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University. At Stanford, Xiwen focused on developing the soft and stretchable semiconductors and devices for wearable electronics (inSPIREd Talk).
In 2018, Xiwen gained her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering with Ted Sargent at the University of Toronto. During her PhD, Xiwen focused on the design of novel materials for solar energy harvesting, light emitting, and sensing. Xiwen was the recipient of the Extraordinary Potential Prize and the “Rising Stars in EECS 2017” (Stanford University). She is currently a senior Schmidt Science Fellow (inaugural) and Amazon Physical Science Fellow.
Markoding (Yayasan Daya Kreasi Anak Bangsa) is a non-profit organization with a mission to transform underprivileged youth in Indonesia into a generation of innovators by equipping them with 21st century skills. With a projected shortage of nine million digital talents in 2030, we aim to provide accessible education to increase employability and tackle youth unemployment. Markoding has trained 11,409 students and 1,465 teachers from 765 schools and communities across 30 provinces.
Markoding focuses on three key areas:
- Empowering Girls & Women through Perempuan Inovasi program that provides girls with gender equality education and digital skills to encourage their participation in STEM careers.
- Empowering Youth from Low-income Families by providing high-quality education and mentorship by industry experts to increase employability.
- Empowering Educators, by equipping them with innovative skills to effectively facilitate their students' learning process, thereby enhancing the quality of STEM education in their institutions.
Hortense Le Ferrand is the assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She leads a dynamic and diverse research team in the fields of materials science, mechanics, and engineering. Together, they aim to create materials and structures for a more sustainable world.
They develop manufacturing strategies to create structural materials with multifunctional properties through the design of their microstructures. These designs are largely inspired by those found in natural composites but adapted to engineered materials, processes, and applications. Their research is multidisciplinary across physico-chemistry, material science and mechanics, and at multiple length scales, in particular the micro, meso and macroscale. Their collaborators are architects, product designs, biologists, and educators.
The purpose of the annual Microbiology Girls Club is to engage and expose under-represented females to a research experience geared towards cultivating an interest in STEM and career development towards obtaining undergraduate and terminal graduate degrees. The interns participate in a research intensive workshop during which they identify unknown bacterium using biochemical tests, microscopy and staining techniques, computational biology, data analysis, and retrovirology. The workshop has been successful for 7 consecutive years and is lead by Dr. M. Nia Madison, a professor at Miami Dade College who has been an advocate for STEM for 2 decades. She aims to empower women and girls to join and make a sustainable, positive impact in STEM fields
Malena Rice is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Yale University, USA and an expert in planetary system formation and evolution. In her research, Malena develops novel frameworks to characterize exoplanet orbital demographics and the dynamical evolution of planetary systems. Malena’s work advances our understanding of why observed planetary systems look the way that they do: how they form, how they evolve, why none of the thousands of known systems look like the solar system, and whether any planetary systems do.
She is the founder and co-leader of the Stellar Obliquities in Long-period Exoplanet Systems (SOLES) survey and the leader of the search for Planet Nine with the NASA TESS mission.Malena is one of the youngest female STEM faculty members ever hired by an Ivy League university, at age 26. As a female astrophysicist, she strives to serve as a role model, mentor, and supporter for young women and underrepresented groups.
SeeSD is a non-profit organization that promotes Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) education, encourages critical thinking, and scientific literacy from an early age. We recognize the importance of African heritage, values, and traditions and incorporate them into our initiatives to create a more community-based approach. Our goal at SeeSD is to foster a scientific community that integrates African heritage, culture, and traditions into STEAM research and initiatives, leading to new and authentic discoveries. We also collaborate with various groups, including communities and universities, to inspire and equip the next generation of African leaders with the necessary skills, values, and vision to shape a sustainable future.
Sonia Shah is the head of the Genomics in Health research group at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. A major focus of my research is using large genetic and health datasets to understand how differences in our genome contribute to cardiovascular disease. We apply this knowledge for precision medicine - identifying those at highest risk for targeted disease prevention, and informing the best treatments in an individual.
SwaTaleem works with historically underrepresented girls in India: first generation learners, caste and religious minorities, low socio-economic backgrounds, with outcomes like high school dropouts and early forced marriages. Rural Indian females from historically disadvantaged castes are known to be 38% less likely to study science in school and face strong gender stereotypes and resistance to study STEM.
We encourage girls to engage with and study natural sciences and increase their retention in STEM areas throughout their schooling. Through the Main Bhi Curie program’s STEM-gender-life skills curriculum, we aim to build STEM awareness, confidence, and engagement in girls. The curriculum covers 26 themes: 18 science and 8 gender themes. Furthermore, we train local village women to implement it in schools. Every cycle culminates with a Science Gender Mela/Fair where girls present their scientific models to their villages and government officials.
2022
2022 Science Outreach Winner
The Tem Menina no Circuito initiative was founded in 2013 by three female physics professors at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, to motivate girls to enjoy STEM. Our hands-on activities take place weekly in schools from low-income regions with high-school and junior-high in a girls-only environment. The activities, such as electrical circuits workshops in alternative media, combine materials commonly used in crafts with electronic components, and are designed to bring out the playful and creative aspects of science. We also promote field trips to universities, research centers, and museums, talks from female researchers, and other activities to empower girls.
2022 Scientific Achievement Winner
Kizzmekia Corbett is an assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Shutzer Assistant Professor at Harvard’s Radcliff Institute of Advanced Study, and Associate Member of the Phillip T. and Susan M. Ragon Institute. Her laboratory studies host immune responses to coronaviruses and other emerging and re-emerging viruses to propel novel vaccine and antibody therapy development. Combining her research goals with her knack for mentorship, she invests much of her time in underserved communities as an advocator of STEM education and vaccine awareness.
2022 Science Outreach Runner Up
Fundi Bots promotes improved, practical science education in African schools and communities through the provision of classroom learning tools, hands-on skills and project-based training, with a strong focus on rural and underprivileged regions and a push for equitable inclusion for girls through the Fundi Girls program. Fundi Girls is an initiative by Fundi Bots to provide equitable access to high impact, practical science learning opportunities to girls to enable them to capitalize on opportunities in their communities to build stronger careers and improve their quality of life. Fundi Girls targets girls between 6 - 25 years of age in all four regions of Uganda. We also target female teachers from different schools. The projected impact of the Fundi Girls program in the next 10 years is to provide equitable access to STEM education resources, skills training and career opportunities for 125,000 African girls.
2022 Scientific Achievement Runner Up
Chiara Mingarelli is a gravitational-wave astrophysicist, looking to understand how supermassive black holes in the centers of massive galaxies merge. She does this by predicting their nanohertz gravitational-wave signatures, which will soon be detected by Pulsar Timing Array experiments. With pulsar timing data, she looks for both individual supermassive black holes in binary systems, and for the gravitational-wave background which should be generated by their cosmic merger history. She has received over $1M in research grants so far, and is a dedicated advocate for women in science. She is an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut, and an associate research scientist at the Center for Computational Astrophysics at the Flatiron Institute. Before joining the Flatiron Institute she was a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellow at Caltech and at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. She completed her PhD in 2014 at the University of Birmingham (UK).
2022 Science Outreach Runner Up
The Zambian Women in Agricultural Research and Development (ZaWARD) Mentorship for Women and Girls (ZaWARD-MWG) is an initiative that instigates, nurtures and sustains purposeful participation of girls/women in STEM-related agricultural careers. Through this initiative girls in primary and secondary school are introduced to the wide array of STEM disciplines in Zambia to foster purposeful career choice. Female college and university students pursuing STEM-based agricultural programs are mentored by senior STEM professionals and farmers are trained in agronomy, technology use and agribusiness to increase adoption of STEM- derived innovations in agriculture. Additionally, ZaWARD-MWG stimulates research that informs and influences policy on gender-responsive STEM applications for sustainable agricultural development in Zambia.
2022 Scientific Achievement Runner Up
Maitreyee Wairagkar is a biomedical scientist developing advance neurotechnology using artificial intelligence. She builds brain-computer interfaces to enable people with severe motor and speech impairments to communicate directly via their brain signals. These devices break down barriers between humans and technology to allow intuitive interactions. Her research is focused on healthcare applications of neurotechnology in rehabilitation and assistive devices for people with different neurological conditions, for example, enabling a person with ALS to fluently speak through a computer, neurorehabilitation for stroke recovery and at-home robotic care for dementia. She is committed to translating her research to real-world applications through collaborating closely with patients, medical practitioners and industrial partners. Her previous neurotech research has been successfully commercialised. She is currently a postdoctoral scholar at University of California, Davis. Previously, she was postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London. She have obtained my PhD and MEng in Cybernetics and AI from University of Reading.
Scientific Achievement Judges' Special Commendation
Lia Medeiros is co-lead of the EHT Gravitational Physics Working Group, a member of the EHT’s Junior Scientist Council, and an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow, working at the Institute for Advanced Study. Additionally, she co-leads one of six collaboration papers published in 2022 that presented groundbreaking results about the black hole in the center of our galaxy, Sgr A*. Her current focus includes developing simulations of accreting black holes, and black holes that differ from the predictions of Einstein's theory of General Relativity, and then comparing these simulations to EHT data. She also used a large library of high-fidelity simulations as a training set for a new algorithm she developed for image reconstruction with EHT data. Her algorithm achieves unprecedented resolution and accuracy. By modeling hypothetical black holes that challenge our understanding of gravity and comparing these exotic structures to EHT observations, she is able to test General Relativity.
2021
Science Outreach Winner
The Parent in Science Movement aims at raising awareness on the barriers faced by academic mothers. By generating primary data on these barriers and the impact of motherhood in the scientists’ careers, we’ve been promoting affirmative actions and inclusive public policies to ensure women’s access, permanence and progression in STEM.
Scientific Achievement Winner
Kiana Aran is a biomedical entrepreneur as well as a researcher, and Associate Professor of Medical Diagnostics and Therapeutics at Keck Graduate Institute, a member of the Claremont Colleges and the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Cardea Bio. Her field of research focuses on designing novel biosensing platforms and using 2D nanomaterials for early disease diagnosis, as well as utilizing biology as tech elements for a variety of biosensing applications. Aside from her primary professional roles as a professor and entrepreneur, she also considers herself a dedicated mentor. Since her first post-doctoral post, she has loved being able to mentor and serve as a role model for students, especially young women who are as passionate about STEM as she is.
Scientific Achievement Runner Up
Simone Badal believes that being scientist in the developing world presents challenges that can easily stifle one’s enthusiasm and impact, yet, it bestows the opportunity to advance niche areas, but this is only achieved through persistence and perseverance. Simone Badal’s Ph.D. findings uncovered many Jamaican lead molecules, using in vitro cell line models, that were more effective and safer than known chemotherapy drugs. Indeed, the promising results garnered local and international awards; publications in noteworthy journals; and grant funding in excess of 600,000 USD for future work. Close evaluation of the results, however, revealed a disparity in ethnically diverse cell lines available to researchers around the globe for elucidating cancer causes towards advancing more effective and safer drug leads. This led to a project designed with a personalised approach that develops novel Caribbean cancer and normal cell lines, representative of African ancestry in order to identify drug leads specifically for this population.
Scientific Achievement Runner Up
Markita Landry is an assistant professor in the department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley; she received her B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in Physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics and a Certificate in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and completed an NSF postdoctoral fellowship in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.She is the principal investigator of the Landry Laboratory, which pioneers nanotechnologies for in-brain neurotransmitter imaging, and for non-GMO genome editing in plants. In the past 5 years, she has received over 20 early career awards, including awards from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Beckman Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, The Dreyfus Foundation, the DARPA Young Investigator program, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the NSF CAREER award.
Scientific Achievement Judges Special Commendation
This year for an application that showed strong future potential.
Megan Lickley grew up in Sudbury, Canada, a city in Northern Ontario that is recovering from a history of acid rain, and now also seeing some dramatic effects from climate change. In many ways this has inspired her career in Earth science. She received her PhD in Climate Science from MIT (2020) and is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Susan Solomon’s lab at MIT. She combines tools from math and climate science to target climate policy at global and regional scales. Most recently, she has been evaluating global compliance with the Montreal Protocol, which regulates the production of ozone depleting substances, which are also very strong greenhouse gases. Her research quantifies sources and emissions of these gases in order to better estimate ongoing production and the size of material that remains in old equipment (e.g. refrigerators).
2020
Scientific Achievement
Samira Asgari is a computational biologist whose research strives to understand how human history shapes global genetic diversity and how this genetic diversity translates to phenotypic diversity. She is particularly interested in understanding this genotype-phenotype relationship in the context of infectious disease susceptibility. Asgari was born and raised in Iran. After obtaining her M.Sc. degree from the University of Tehran, she moved to EPFL, Switzerland in 2011 to pursue a Ph.D. in human genomics of infectious disease. In 2017, she moved to the US to continue her research as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. Her postdoctoral work is focused on using statistical and population genetics to investigate how admixture information can be leveraged to learn about a populations’ history and to identify new genotype-phenotype relationships.
Science Outreach
Chicas en Tecnología. In Argentina, only 16% of women study careers linked to programming. In an era where technology is transforming the way we live and interact, Chicas en Tecnologia believes that women's voices and perspectives must be included. Since 2015 Chicas en Tecnología has sought to reduce the gender gap in the technological entrepreneurial environment by motivating, training and mentoring young women; the next generation of leaders in technology. Through its programmes, clubs, Programming a Better World scheme (PUMM), and #CommunityCET, it empowers young women. It puts them in touch with technology in a novel way, so that they break stereotypes, go from being users to creators and learn that with available technology they can impact society, change realities. Through several Initiatives talks, workshops and events, research, and campaigns, it builds systemic change, involving various actors: formal and non-formal education institutions, ministries, public and international organizations, companies, startups, media and NGOs, among others.
2019
Inspiring Science Award
Jean Fan, Harvard University and CuSTEMized. Jean Fan is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard. She received her PhD in Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics at Harvard and her research interests center around developing computational methods for identifying and characterizing heterogeneity at the single cell level, particularly in the context of cancer, using multi-omic approaches. She is the founder of a non-profit organization CuSTEMized which encourages young girls to see themselves in STEM.
“When I failed my first computer science class, my teacher discouraged me from continuing in CS. So I ignored her and took more CS classes. When I published my first paper, my colleagues insinuated that my male advisor did all the work. So I ignored them and published many more papers. When I received my first grant, my classmate downplayed my achievement, noting that my grant was rather small. So I ignored him and won more grants. Persevere. Bury doubters with your success.
You are not the rule. You are the exception. Just because a woman hasn't done it before, doesn't mean you can't do it. Just because this is the way things have always been done, doesn't mean it's the way things always have to be. You can defy the tyranny of precedent. At every stage of your scientific career, I hope you will use your power to bring about change, rather than letting that power change you. May you strive to be who you needed when you were younger.”
Innovating Science Award
The STEM Belle. STEM Belle founder Doreen Anene is a Schlumberger Foundation Fellow, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham, and currently a visiting scholar at the Poultry Research Foundation, Sydney - Australia. The STEM Belle is focused on levelling the female representation in STEM fields. With activity in three countries, The STEM Belle has impacted over 1000 girls from 6 different schools. Doreen is also a YALI RLC alumni and a UN Women Global Champion for Change
“Implementing initiatives in economically disadvantaged areas is expensive. Access to educational resources, equipment, e.g. projectors, computers, LEGO pieces and other STEM equipment is limited. Speak up and ask for in-kind support. Some organisations lend out their equipment, resources and staff for free.
Some people feel that getting women to join STEM and higher education is a waste of time and resource. I pay no attention to them and we remain focused on our goals. I believe in launching out. There is no need for waiting until everything is perfect. There are so many school girls who just need guidance, inspiration and mentorship to join STEM fields. So, establish a good relationship with the school management. Get them involved with the plans and actions of the initiative. This is the pathway to sustainability. Cash support is important but do not hesitate to request for in-kind support from companies and service providers. And always keep your passion alive.”
2018
Inspiring Science Award
Mirjana Pović (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA)-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientifícas (CSIC), Spain). Mirjana Pović is an assistant professor at the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute, Ethiopia, and associated researcher at the Spanish IAA-CSIC. Mirjana obtained her PhD degree in 2010 at the IAA, Spain, and her main field of research is galaxy formation and evolution, focused on nuclear activity in galaxies. She participated in more than 10 international projects (being co-principal investigator and principal investigator of two) and has around 80 publications. She works on the development of science and education in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya and Ghana, through joint research collaborations, student supervisions, training, lecturing, regulation development and outreach.
Innovating Science Award
The Association of Hungarian Women in Science (NaTE). The Association of Hungarian Women in Science (NaTE) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that aims to promote STEM and computer sciences among girls who are under-represented in these fields of education. NaTE was established in 2008 by female scientists. Since then, NaTE has grown into a country-wide network of scientists — both men and women — working in STEM or social sciences, who are committed to the gender balance in academia, technology, innovation, and research and development. NaTE has founded projects such as the ‘Excellence Award for Women in Science’, ‘Scindicator – A science communication competition’, ‘Smart future for Girls’ and ‘Girls’ Day’.
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