Chinese Paleontologist Wins 2018 L’Oréal-UNESCO Science Award

Fish paleontologist Professor Chang Meemann has won the 2018 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award

AsianScientist (Nov. 20, 2017) – Professor Chang Meemann of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology is one of five women to have won the 2018 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award. Alongside the other winners from Argentina, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom, Chang will receive the award at a ceremony on March 22, 2018 in Paris.

The L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Awards recognizes women who are still under-represented in various fields, including science, where the glass ceiling remains a reality. Today, barely 28 percent of researchers are women. All of this year’s nine scientific Nobel Prizes were awarded to men and, since the creation of the Nobel Prizes in science, fewer than three percent have been awarded to women.

Yet, numerous women are making major contributions to science. For almost 20 years, the L’Oréal Foundation, in partnership with UNESCO, has celebrated five exceptional female researchers every year and has been committed to promoting equality between women and men in science.

The five women scientists celebrated by the 2018 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science awards were selected by an independent jury of ten high-profile members of the international science community, chaired this year by Professor Elizabeth H. Blackburn, laureate of the 2008 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award and of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009.

Each Laureate will receive €100,000 in prize money for her outstanding contribution to advances in science. Chang is being recognized for her pioneering work on fossil records leading to insights on how aquatic vertebrates adapted to life on land.

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Source: UNESCO; Photo: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.
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