L’ORÉAL-UNESCO science award

Karimat El-Sayed

The 2003 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Award Laureates include Karimat El-Sayed (Egypt), professor of solid state physics, Ain Shams U. Cairo, who has specialized in the detection of impurities in materials relevant to industrial metallurgy and semi-conducting materials; and Fanghua Li (China), professor, Inst. of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, who has specialized in electron microscopy. Her work has pushed back the limits of observation of crystalline structures through the elimination of interference.

Fanghua Li

These awards, presented by the Chief Executive Officer of L’ORÉAL, L. Owen-Jones, and Director-General of UNESCO, K. Matsuura, recognize women working in the field of the material sciences. Five laureates in the material sciences, in addition to fifteen fellowships in the life sciences, were honored at the event. This year’s awards bring to 71 the number of women, from 45 countries, who have been honored by the program.

The L’ORÉAL-UNESCO 'For Women in Science' programme aims to improve the position of women in science by recognizing outstanding women researchers who have contributed to scientific progress (L’ORÉAL-UNESCO awards of $100,000 each), and young women scientists engaged in exemplary and promising projects (UNESCO- L’ORÉAL fellowships of $20,000 each).

The awards distinguish five remarkable women researchers representing the five continents: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America. Often, these women’s exceptional careers have opened up new and revolutionary ways of improving conditions of life and well-being. Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Nobel Prize in Physics 1991, presided over an international selection committee of ten eminent scientists.