Two physicists among 2017 L'Oreal-Unesco for Women in Science awardees

Two physicists, including one from Asia Pacific, are among five laureates of the 2017 L'Oreal-Unesco for Women in Science Awards, a statement said on Tuesday.

The 2017 edition of the awards honours five outstanding scientific researchers in physical sciences, working in each of the following regions: Africa and the Arab States, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America.

Australian quantum physicist Michelle Simmons has been selected "for her pioneering contributions to quantum and atomic electronics, constructing atomic transistors en route to quantum computers", in Asia Pacific.

Chilean astrophysicist Maria Teresa Ruiz is recognised "for her discovery of the first brown dwarf and her seminal work on understanding the faintest stars, including stars at the final stages of their evolution (white dwarfs)" for Latin America.

For Africa & the Arab States, the awards honour Lebanese analytical chemist Niveen Khashab's contributions "to the development of innovative smart hybrid materials aimed at drug delivery and for developing new techniques to monitor intracellular antioxidant activity."

Khashab is an associate professor of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia.

British materials science researcher Nicola Spaldin is the laureate from Europe "for her groundbreaking multidisciplinary work predicting, describing and creating new materials that have switchable magnetic and ferroelectric properties."

Spaldin is professor and Chair of Materials Theory, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

For her outstanding contributions and mastery of the development of novel functional stretchable polymers for consumer electronics, energy storage and biomedical applications, American material chemistry expert Zhenan Bao, of Stanford University, has been chosen as the laureate from North America.

The awards will be presented at a ceremony on March 23, 2017, in Paris.

Proposed by a community of more than 2,000 leading scientists, the five laureates were then selected by an independent international jury of 12 prominent scientists presided this year by professor Christian Amatore, member of the French Academy of Sciences (AcadA¿mie des sciences).

Each laureate will receive a prize of 100,000 euro to reward their contribution to science.

--IANS

sgh/sm/vt