The 2011 International Fellows: the Faces of Science for Tomorow

02/03/2011

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• Each year, 15 young women are encouraged through an International Fellowship to pursue their research abroad.

Those Fellowships give a boost to promising research and help the beneficiaries to build networks in the international community and acquire experience that they can later share when they return home.

This year, the International fellows have carried out their research in varied fields, at the forefront of the current scientific challenges and their projects fall under 3 main topics:

1^st topic: The impact of human activity on our ecosystems

Andia CHAVES FONNEGRA from COLOMBIA is a PhD student in marine biology.

She is researching the timing of sponge reproduction and its possible correlation with sea temperature.
Her host Institution is the Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

Cristina CHINCHILLA SOTO from COSTA RICA is a PhD student in ecology.

She is researching the effects of climate change on the carbon cycle in tropical dry forests.
Her host Institution is the School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, UK

Reyam AL-MALIKEY from IRAQ is a PhD student in ecology and also an assistant lecturer in biology at the Al-Mustansiryha University in Baghdad, Iraq.

She is concerned by the potentially damaging effects of heavy metal waste, such as cadmium, lead and zinc, on aquatic ecosystems and the implications for human and animal health.
Her host Institution is the School of Environmental Studies at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Samia Elfékih from TUNISIA is a PhD student in biology will try to better understand how mutant genes coding for resistance have spread geographically and across diverse environmental conditions.

Her host Institution is Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK

Triin VAHISALU from ESTONIA is a PhD student in Plant Biology. She is studying how plants react to changing environmental conditions.

Her host institution is the Department of Biosciences, Division of Plant Biology, University of Helsinki, Finland

2^nd topic: Nature: an ally in controlling the spread of health disasters Germaine

Germaine L. MINOUNGOU from BURKINA FASO is a Doctorate student in veterinary medicine.

She is convinced of the need to improve the system for animal disease diagnosis in her country, in order to enable veterinary staff to differentiate between the symptoms of Newcastle disease and the often similar symptoms of avian influenza.
Her host institution is the Research Center for Animal Hygiene and Food Safety, Obihiro University, Hokkaido, Japan.

Justine NZWEUNDJI from CAMEROON is a PhD student in plant biology.

She will be focussing her work on Prunus africana, or pygeum, a wild evergreen tree which grows in mountainous regions of sub-Saharan Africa.
Her host Institution is the Center for Tropical Agriculture at University of Florida, USA

Nilufar MAMADALIEVA from UZBEKISTAN is Plant biochemistry and pharmacology.

She has dedicated her research to the study of biologically active compounds from native plant species.
Her host Institution is the Laboratory of Plant Cytology and Biotechnology at Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy

Alejandra JARAMILLO GUTIERREZ from PANAMA is a PhD student in parasitology.

She will be investigating the role of parasites in the evolution of the vertebrate immune system.
Her host Institution is the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Fadzai ZENGEYA from ZIMBABWE a PhD student in agricultural sciences

She is studying the spatial movement of domestic livestock at the periphery of wildlife-rich areas.
Her host Institution is the School of Environmental Sciences, University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

3^rd topic : New paths to tomorrow’s medicine

Jiban Jyoti PANDA from INDIA is a doctoral student in biotechnology.

She is focusins her research centers on the design of novel methods for drug delivery using nanotechnology.
Her host Institution is the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, at the School of Pharmacy, University of Colorado Denver, USA

Ladan TEIMOORI-TOOLABI from IRAN is a medical doctor with a PhD in medical biotechnology.

Her research focuses on developing gene therapy for colorectal cancers. Ladan plans to use her fellowship to investigate whether colorectal cancer can be reliably detected using blood samples.
Her host Institution is the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Hagar GELBARD-SAGIV from ISRAEL is a PhD in Neurobiology.

She has focused her work on the role of nerve cells in memory, recall and visual perception. She plans to take direct electrophysiological recordings of neuron activity in the brains of consenting patients who have undergone neurosurgery to treat epilepsy.
Her host Institution is the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Division of Biology and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Department of Neurosurgery USA.

Tatiana LOPATINA from RUSSIA is a PhD in Biological Sciences.

She is investigating the role of adipose stem cells in tissue repair.
Her host Institution is the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Turin, Italy

Mais ABSI from SYRIA is a PhD in pharmacology.

She plans to study the effect of Vitamin D3 deficiency on human health, which is often associated with such diseases as rickets and osteo- porosis.
Her host Institution is the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, UK.

These 15 young women scientists will receive their fellowships at the UNESCO in Paris on March 2^nd , 2011. To know them better, please click here:

http://www.loreal.com/_en/_ww/index.aspx?direct1=00008&direct2=00008/00001

Comments

Name or Pseudo - Activity (optional) 4/03/2011

I congratulate the fellows, and the organization to have such a sensitive action to impact the lifes of excellent humans and the world.
I know personally one of the laureates and she rocks.
Congratulations to all

Dra. Cris Diaz