L’Oreal USA Women in Science

For the sixth year, L'Oreal USA awards fellowships to five women to support their groundbreaking postdoctoral research in neuroscience, bioengineering and other scientific disciplines, the firm announces May 21. This year individual grants have been upped from $40,000 to $60,000, L'Oreal notes. Grant winners include physicist Beena Kalinsky, Stanford University, whose work toward developing a new system for detecting and characterizing nanomagnets has the long-range potential to increase drug efficiency, and atmospheric/environmental chemist Aster Kammrath, University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is investigating the pathways by which certain molecules are involved in pollution and climate change so that appropriate emissions controls can be set. L'Oreal fellow Nozomi Nishimura, a neuroscientist and bioengineer at Cornell University, is probing the role that blood vessel dysfunction plays in Alzheimer's disease, which could lead to better diagnosis and treatment, and Tiffany Santos, a materials scientist and engineer at Argonne National Laboratory, is studying transition metal oxides, a class of materials that could help reduce power consumption and increase the energy efficiency of information technologies. Finally, Brown University biologist Erika Sudderth "aims to understand the mechanisms driving ecosystem responses to climate change," according to L'Oreal. "The 2009 L'Oreal USA fellows are leading by example: they are excelling in their research while demonstrating to women everywhere the excitement and importance of engaging in science careers," says Laurent Attal, president and CEO of L'Oreal USA