French-based cosmetics giant L’Oreal depends on scientific research to continuously improve its various skincare and beauty ranges. Every year, the company develops 5,000 formulas and just in 2008, it registered 628 patents.
It employs more than 2,900 researchers, 55% of whom are women. L’Oreal recognises, however, that in general women are under-represented in the world of science. In the past century, only 3% of Nobel Prize for Science winners have been women.
In order to set the balance right, L’Oreal in 1998 launched the For Women in Science (FWIS) Award, the first international award devoted to women in science. To date, the programme has supported more than 700 women scientists worldwide through International Awards, International Fellowships (permitting women to pursue their research abroad at prestigious laboratories) and National Fellowships (which help young researchers to pursue their scientific careers in their home country).
The Malaysian chapter of this award was set up in 2006, with the L’Oreal Malaysia For Women in Science Fellowships, which is awarded every year to three young female researchers, each of whom receives RM20,000 to pursue their research work in Malaysia. Nine outstanding Malaysian women have so far received the FWIS award, their research including the following:
• establishing laboratory models to understand key genetic events in oral cancer development and subsequently to target these genes for cancer treatment.
• developing and characterising nanofibres from okra which has great potential for food and medical applications.
• developing solar cell material to produce renewable energy for commercial application.
With the support of the FWIS fellowship, one of Malaysia’s award winners in 2007, Dr Srimala Sreekantan, went on to win the Gold Medal and ‘Congratulation from Jury’ award at the 37th International Exhibition of Inventions, New Techniques and Products in Geneva, Switzerland; the Silver Medal at the 20th International Invention, Innovation & Technology Exhibition (ITEX) 2009, Kuala Lumpur; and the Gold Medal at Malaysia Technology Expo 2008.
Dr Sreekantan’s outstanding achievement was the creation of titania nanotubes (TNT) as economical and self-cleaning photocatalysers (photocatalysers are environmental cleaners activated by sunlight or artificial light, which can remove organic compounds such as odours and bacteria).
FWIS Malaysia is supported by the Malaysian National Commission for UNESCO, in partnership with the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation.
The Prime Minister’s CSR Awards, launched by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development in 2007, aims to recognise companies that have made a difference to the communities in which they operate through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. Download the Official Entry Form.
