APPLICATIONS OPEN FOR 2013 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO UK AND IRELAND ‘FELLOWSHIPS FOR WOMEN
IN SCIENCE’
February 2013 – Applications for the L’Oréal-UNESCO UK and Ireland Fellowships For Women In Science
are now open. This year, four outstanding female post doctoral scientists in the UK or Ireland will be granted a
fellowship worth £15,0001 each. The finalists will be selected by a panel of eminent scientists, including
Professor
Frances
Ashcroft
who
will
chair
this
year’s
jury.
Entries
can
be made online
at
www.womeninscience.co.uk.
The L’Oréal-UNESCO UK and Ireland Fellowships For Women In Science were launched in 2007 and are
designed to provide flexible and practical help for the winners to further extend research in their respected
fields. Winners may choose to spend their fellowship grants in whichever way is most helpful to them in
continuing their research, whether it be buying scientific equipment, hiring an assistant or paying for childcare
costs.
Professor Frances Ashcroft, who was the 2012 L’Oréal-UNESCO International For Women In Science
European Laureate, commented, “I am honoured to have been offered the opportunity to chair the judging
panel for the 2013 L’Oreal-UNESCO UK & Ireland Fellowships For Women in Science. These are highly
prestigious awards that recognise the extraordinary range and high quality of scientific research being carried
out by female scientists in the UK & Ireland today.”
Dr Silvia Giordani was one of the winners of the 2012 Fellowships. She received the award for her work on a
new avenue towards “smart” medicines. Her award has been used for a research field trip and to help fund a
collaborative project in another country.
Dr Giordani says: “Since winning the award, I’ve received some fantastic recognition for my work which has
really boosted my confidence. It has opened up some excellent opportunities with new collaborators and
networks within the science world. As long as you stay curious, ask questions and believe in yourself, there is
1
Equivalent value in Euros for candidates in Ireland
no limit to what you can achieve. I hope that fellowships like this continue so that female scientists can be
inspired to stay at the top of their game, and stay in science for long term careers”.
The 2013 awards will be adjudicated by a panel of eminent scientists. Julie McManus, Scientific Director at
L’Oréal said: “Now in its fifteenth year, For Women in Science continues to support and encourage women in
science as important role models for inspiring the next generation of young women. With two Nobel Prizes
winners in our midst, the For Women in Science fellows all demonstrate the determination and excellence
needed to succeed within their fields.”
The closing date for applications to the 2013 L’Oréal-UNESCO UK and Ireland Fellowships For Women In
Science is Friday 15th March 2013. For further information and to apply, please visit:
www.womeninscience.co.uk
Ends
For more information and for photography, please contact:
Charlotte Ryder/ charlotte.ryder@diffusionpr.com/ 0207 291 0241
Tom Malcolm/ tom.malcolm@diffusionpr.com / 0207 291 0233
Katy Gandon/ KGANDON@uk.loreal.com/ 0208 762 4136
Notes to Editors
L’ORÉAL-UNESCO FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE
The L’Oréal UNESCO For Women In Science programme was founded 15 years ago in 1998 by L’Oréal and UNESCO
on the premise that ‘the world needs science and science needs women’. The awards programme is designed to promote
and highlight the critical importance of ensuring greater participation of women in science, by awarding promising female
scientists with fellowships to help them further their research.
There are three distinct schemes:

The founding ‘International Laureate Awards’ provide five women, one from each continent, with a prestigious
laureate of up to $100,000 for their research. The international structure of the programme ensures that the
laureates are distributed among women who are working under a wide variety of conditions. These awards have
been running for 15 years, since 1998.

The ‘International Fellowships’ award promising female doctorate or post-doctorate scientists up to $40,000 each,
so that they can continue their research. The fellowships help women scientists pursue their research in some of
the world’s most prestigious laboratories and have been running since the year 200.

The ‘National Fellowships’, such as the UK and Ireland programme detailed below, run in 43 countries around the
world. Each National Fellowship helps students pursue scientific careers and have, to date, enabled over 750
women to continue their research.
In total, over 1,300 women in 106 countries have been recognised for their research and received funding to
further their studies since the initial programme was founded in 1998.
The winners awarded L’Oréal-UNESCO UK and Ireland National Fellowships For Women In Science in 2012 were:
 Dr Silvia Giordani, from Trinity College Dublin, for her work on a new avenue towards “smart” medicines
 Dr Katrina Lythgoe, from Imperial College London, for her work in multiscale evolutionary dynamics of important
human diseases
 Dr Claire Spottiswoode, from the University of Cambridge, for her work on the genetics of cuckoo egg mimicry:
solving a century-old evolutionary puzzle
 Dr Geetha Srinivasan, from Queen’s University Belfast, for her work on ionic liquids enabling biomedical
applications
2012 WINNER CASE STUDIES
Dr Silvia Giordani
Trinity College, Dublin
Dr Silvia Giordani is a Research Assistant Professor at Trinity College in the Department of Chemistry. Dr Giordani was
awarded a fellowship for her work on a new avenue towards “smart” medicines. The fellowship will pay for a fieldtrip and
help Silvia visit her collaborators and travel to conferences.
Dr Katrina Lythgoe
Imperial College, London
Dr Katrina Lythgoe works in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College in London. Dr Lythgoe was awarded a fellowship
for her work in multiscale evolutionary dynamics of important human diseases. The fellowship will pay for her family to
travel to Penn State University so she can spend an extended period of time working with Prof. Andrew Read applying the
modeling framework she has developed for HIV to Malaria. She will also spend some money on additional childcare and
travel to international meetings.
Dr Claire Spottiswoode
University of Cambridge
Dr Claire Spottiswoode is a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge in the Department of Zoology. Dr
Spottiswoode was awarded a fellowship for her work on the genetics of cuckoo egg mimicry: solving a century-old
evolutionary puzzle. The fellowship will page for various awkward expenses in the field in Zambia which are hard to fund
via conventional grants. These include a new second-hand vehicle to make it possible for to travel between the capital
and the field site, and wages for a team of nest-finding and bird-keeping local assistants who are essential to all her work
in Zambia.
Dr Geetha Srinivasan
Queen’s University, Belfast
Dr Geetha Srinivasan is a Research Fellow at Queen’s University, Belfast. Dr Srinivasan was awarded a fellowship for her
work on ionic liquids enabling biomedical applications. The fellowship will pay for various trips to her collaborators as well
as helping towards the cost of childcare and various consumables.
##