The Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. and Nature Research have teamed to recognize the achievements of female scientists with the first Nature Research Awards for Inspiring Science and for Innovating Science.Since women make up less than a third of the world’s researchers, The Estée Lauder Cos. wanted to recognize women early in their careers who are working to champion other women and girls participating in science. These candidates will have demonstrated the ability to go beyond the norm in encouraging participation in science, technology, engineering and math, like social media campaigns, app development or digital solutions that connect students to these subjects.Seventy percent of The Estée Lauder Cos. product development, packaging, research and development and innovation executives are women.“As a company founded by pioneering women, supporting other women pioneers is at the core of who we are,” said Lisa Napolione, senior vice president of global research and development at The Estée Lauder Cos., who is also a judging panel member. “We are thrilled to partner on these inaugural awards with Nature Research, an organization that shares our values on exceptional science and extraordinary scientists.”The Inspiring Science Award will honor a female scientist who has completed their Ph.D. in the last 10 years and who has excelled in scientific discovery. The Innovating Science award will honor an individual or organization that has led initiatives to support access to STEM programs for women around the world. Both awards look to recognize women globally from all scientific areas, not necessarily within the beauty industry.“Given the inspirational advocacy for gender equality across society we’ve recently seen, it’s more important than ever that we do more to recognize and support the achievements of women in science and that we encourage girls to engage with STEM subjects and pursue scientific careers,” said Magdalena Skipper, editor in chief of Nature Communications, which is published by Nature Research. “These awards will give a global platform to some of these women who may otherwise go unheralded, as well as celebrate the efforts of the leaders behind initiatives supporting greater equality in the sciences.”Other beauty companies also have initiatives that honor female scientists. L’Oréal launched its For Women in Science initiative with Unesco 20 years ago where women are recognized for their contributions in STEM.The winners of the Inspiring Science Award and Innovating Science Award will receive up to $10,000 to spend on initiatives linked to the award and will receive training from Nature Masterclasses. The Inspiring Science Award winner will also receive a grant of up to $5,200 for open access publication of their research in a Springer Nature journal, and the Innovating Science Award winner will receive up to $5,200 to support their initiatives.Nominations will be accepted until June 11 and nominees will be announced on July 24. The winners will be announced in October.
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