Two winners of the L’Oréal-UNESCO Prize “For Women in Science” receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physics

Professors Katalin Carrickreceived the 2022 LOral-UNESCO Women in Science Prize, and Anne LhuillierShe was awarded the 2011 L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Prize, and this week was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physics respectively. Professor of Biochemistry, Katalin Carrick, received an award for her work that allowed for the development of mRNA vaccines against Covid-19, while Professor of Atomic Physics, Anne Lhuillier, was honored for her experimental methods, which generate attosecond pulses of light for viruses. Study of electronic dynamics in matter.

From the L’Oral Foundation, we celebrate this historic decision and want to send our sincere congratulations to Professors Catalin Carrick and Anne Lhuillier. The coming years will be crucial for the future of humanity, and to meet the challenges that lie ahead, society will need the talent of women and men alike. Today’s young researchers should be able to become tomorrow’s Nobel Prize winners without obstacles and without differences in treatment, says Alexandra Palt, the institute’s executive director. L’Oreal Foundation.

Currently, women are still underrepresented in scientific research: they make up only 33.3% of researchers worldwide. In addition, they find it difficult to develop their careers and get the recognition they deserve. Since the Nobel Prizes were established in 1901, a total of 640 scientists have been awarded for their work in physics, chemistry or medicine, and only 26 of them are women.

This week’s award of the Nobel Prize to Katalin Carrick and Anne Lhuillier brings the number of recipients of the L’Oral-UNESCO Prize for Women in Science to seven, following Christiane Nesslin Wollhard (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1995). Ada Yonath (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009), Elizabeth Blackburn (Nobel Prize in Medicine 2009), Emmanuel Charpentier (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020), and Jennifer A. Doudna (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020).