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L’Oréal’s ‘For Women in Science’ program awards 1st Puerto Rican scientist

L’Oréal USA announced the recipients of its 2020 “For Women in Science” fellowship, including the first Puerto Rican to be awarded, Nancy Padilla-Coreano.

The annual program awards five female postdoctoral scientists grants of $60,000 each to advance their research. Now in its 17th year, the applications the “For Women in Science” 2021 program have started, and post-doctoral women scientists from Puerto Rico are eligible, the company announced.

The program has recognized 80 postdoctoral female scientists and contributed more than $4 million to the advancement of critical research in fields as diverse as neurobiology, metabolic diseases, physics and material science, integrative biology, and biomedical engineering.

Padilla-Coreano’s research in neurobiology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California, explores how the brain controls social behaviors. She is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus with a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology.

“The L’Oréal USA For Women in Science fellowship has been incredible in supporting my transition to independence in my work, which focuses on neurobiology and understanding how the brain encodes social information, and how it can aid the development of potential therapies for social deficits” Padilla-Coreano said.

“Through the program, I hope to be able to inspire other young Puerto Ricans to continue developing their scientific careers, to serve as leaders and role models in their fields until female scientists are so prevalent that we equalize opportunity at all levels of achievement,” she said.

L’Oréal Caribe together with the Puerto Rico Science Trust will be holding an information session on the “L’Oréal for Women in Science” program with Padilla-Coreano. Participants can register for the session on Dec. 17 via Zoom.

“For the first time, a Puerto Rican receives the prestigious global program L’Oréal For Women In Science award,” said Dave Hughes, General Manager of L’Oréal Caribe. “We’re extremely proud to offer our program to more outstanding Puerto Rican women in the STEM fields of science, we encourage postdoctoral candidates to apply and commit to serve as role models for younger generations to come.”

The 2020 For Women in Science fellowship candidates were evaluated based on their intellectual merit, research potential, scientific excellence and their commitment to supporting women and girls in science.

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This story was written by our staff based on a press release.
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