RFS Briefings - October 24, 2019

We are pleased to include another issue of RFS Briefings with some timely and encouraging updates on women in science.

Despite the significant accomplishments of women presented here, we must also note that the recently announced Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine, all went to men. Prior to this year’s announcements, Göran Hansson, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, addressed the imbalance in gender and ethnicity among Nobel Prize winners. Only 20 Nobel medals have gone to women since the Awards began in 1901, though there is evidence of a small increase in more women being nominated. Read more. Please also see the articles below summarizing important coverage of these Awards.

We would like to inform you of two upcoming opportunities:

• The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation invites physician scientists at the assistant professor level who are conducting research in any disease area to submit pre-proposal applications for the 2020 Clinical Scientist Development Award, due on November 19, 2019.  Read more.
  
  
• The Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education of the National Academies of Sciences will be presenting its First Annual Public Summit on November 19 – November 20 in Seattle, WA. The audience may participate in-person or virtually through an interactive webcast. Read more.

And, of course, registration is now open for the RFS Board Meeting & Colloquium in November in Philadelphia at the Wistar Institute.

RFS Briefings - October 7, 2019

We are pleased to include another issue of RFS Briefings with some timely and encouraging updates on women in science.

On September 12, HHMI announced the selection of 15 exceptional early career scientists, including seven women, as 2019 Hanna Gray fellows to support diversity in biomedical research, each receiving an award of $1.4 million. The 2020 Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program competition is now open, with applications due on January 8, 2020. Read more.

On September 9, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Lyda Hill Philanthropies have selected 125 women innovators as AAAS IF/THEN® Ambassadors to share their stories and serve as “high-profile” role models for girls by connecting with them in person and through various media platforms. Read more.

And, of course, registration is now open for the RFS Board Meeting & Colloquium in November in Philadelphia at the Wistar Institute.

RFS Briefings - August 31, 2019

We are pleased to include another issue of RFS Briefings with some timely and encouraging updates on women in science.

RFS is pleased to announce that the winner of the Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology – sponsored by RFS and presented each year at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Agtech – was Reshma Shetty, PhD, a co-founder of the synthetic biology company Ginkgo Bioworks and a trailblazer in the field of synthetic biology.

Of note in particular, see details below for the call for applications for the Sartorius & Science Prize for Regenerative Medicine and Cell Therapy.

And, of course, registration is now open for the RFS Board Meeting & Colloquium in November in Philadelphia at the Wistar Institute.

RFS Briefings - July 25, 2019

We are pleased to include another issue of RFS Briefings with some timely and encouraging updates on women in science.

Of note in particular:

Happy Birthday, Rosalind Franklin

Today, July 25, we celebrate the birthday of Rosalind Elsie Franklin (July 25, 1920 – April 16, 1958) and take great pride in the Rosalind Franklin Society founded in her honor in 2008 by Mary Ann Liebert, president and founder of Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The Society honors the achievements of Rosalind Franklin, a British x-ray crystallographer whose extraordinary work, though largely overlooked and under-appreciated at the time, was crucial to the discovery of DNA’s structure by James Watson and Francis Crick. The powerful symbolism of her remarkable story drives the Society’s agenda. For more about Franklin’s career, see The Rosalind Franklin Papers.

Recognition is also bestowed this week as the Wellcome Trust in London names one of its Board rooms after her.

2020 Lurie Prize on Biomedical Sciences

The Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences has announced a Call for Nominations for the 2020 Prize, with a deadline of September 12, 2019. The Prize, which recognizes outstanding achievement by a young scientist in biomedical research, will be presented at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) Award Ceremony on May 20, in Washington, DC. The Prize is made available by a generous gift to FNIH by philanthropist Ann Lurie. Read more.