The Japan Science and Technology Agency has selected winners for the first Marie Sklodowska Curie Award for young female researchers. JST recognizes the importance of initiatives designed to promote the activities of female researchers in science, technology, and innovation fields. In particular, it is necessary to support female researchers in their late twenties and early thirties, when they are most expected to be active as a researcher, and at the same time, deal with many life events.
Credit: JST
The Japan Science and Technology Agency has selected winners for the first Marie Sklodowska Curie Award for young female researchers. JST recognizes the importance of initiatives designed to promote the activities of female researchers in science, technology, and innovation fields. In particular, it is necessary to support female researchers in their late twenties and early thirties, when they are most expected to be active as a researcher, and at the same time, deal with many life events.
Based on this belief we established the “Marie Sklodowska Curie Award” in together with the Embassy of the Republic of Poland to promote the activities of female researchers across the world. The award’s namesake, Marie Sklodowska Curie, was recognized for her achievements in her early thirties and later won the Nobel Prize. The Marie Sklodowska Curie Award honors her great contribution and achievements to the development of science and technology across the world, and we hope her example will inspire more active participation by Japanese female researchers.
For the first Marie Sklodowska Curie Award, we accepted applications from October 1 to December 13, 2021. Through document screenings and interviews with external experts, we have selected one Grand Prize winner and two Inspiration Prize winners. In addition, considering the effort of applicants whose quality of work is close to those of Inspiration Prize winners, we also selected one Recognition Prize winner. JEOL Ltd. will award 1.1M yen in prizes: 500k yen for the Grand Prize, 250k yen for each Inspiration Prize and 100k yen for the Recognition Prize.
The Winners of the First Marie Sklodowska Curie Award
Grand Prize Winner
Mayuko Yamashita
Assistant Professor, Research Institute of Mathematical Science, Kyoto University
Dr. Yamashita specializes in noncommunicative geometry. She studies not only mathematics but also physics field theory, occupying a strong position in the academic world. She has spoken at a plenary lecture for a large international conference on mathematics. There are high expectations for her future research.
Inspiration Prize
Mariko Kimura
Special postdoctoral researcher, RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research
Dr. Kimura’s research is very original in that she tried to observe the energy emitted from the vicinity of a blackhole by combining various waves ranging from visible rays to x-rays. She has been involved in several collaborative research projects. She is known for her passion for astronomy, and is continuously searching for new problems and challenges to solve in her future research.
Kayoko Shioda
Epidemiologist, Department of Epidemiology and Gangarosa, Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
As an expert on epidemiology and its mathematical models, Dr. Shioda has conducted collaborative research with as many as 30 countries. She also works as a statistics consultant at the World Health Organization. Her work is highly international, and her contributions to human life have been widely recognized. Her exceptional ability to communicate and present her research is expected to make her a good role model for other researchers.
Recognition Prize
Marie Saitou
Principal Investigator, Centre of Integrative Genetics (CIGENE), Faculty of Biosciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences
While studying genome informatics and genetic statistics, Dr. Saitou is also mentoring young researchers overseas. Her leadership is highly praised, and her attitude towards building networks with various people makes her a good role model for other female researchers.
For more information visit our website; https://www.jst.go.jp/diversity/en/index.html