L’Oreal awarded $60,000 fellowships on Thursday to three emerging female scientists from Boston. The cosmetics company also recently released findings that women scientists face higher barriers to success than their male counterparts.
“It comes at a time in our careers when we’re striving to be more independent,” Dr. Brenda Bloodgood, 34, of Harvard, said after being honored at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. “There really are limited opportunities for us to extend ourselves. In that way this fellowship is really a unique opportunity.”
Dr. Peggy St. Jacques of Harvard University and Dr. Lindley Winslow of MIT were also among the winners.
Bloodgood’s research could lead to advances in neurological disorders such as autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia, while St. Jacques studies Alzheimer’s disease. Winslow is researching nuclear particle astrophysics.
The funds come with no stipulations. Bloodgood hired a female research assistant. “I get to give back by training a young woman who herself wants to be a scientist,” Bloodgood said. “So it’s really a double positive.”
