L’Oréal Singapore announces 2014 For Women in Science fellows

L’Oréal Singapore has awarded fellowships to Guo Huili and Ho Ghim Wei as part of the 2014 L’Oréal Singapore For Women In Science National Fellowship programme.

Organised with the support of the Singapore National Commission for UNESCO and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the fellowship programme recognises women engaged in science research. The programme also aims to encourage women to pursue careers in science; as well as to promote participation in Singapore’s research and development sector to women.

Each year, a fellowship is awarded for a researcher’s work in Life Sciences and another for Material Sciences. For the first time in 2014, the Material Science category broadened its definition to include Physical & Engineering Sciences. For the first time, the applications received this year were equally distributed between the categories; typically they lean towards the Life Sciences.

The 2014 Life Science Fellowship was awarded to Dr Guo Huili (郭慧丽), 31, Junior Investigator, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR. She is also Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University-Imperial College. Dr Guo received the fellowship for her research on cellular translation.

Dr Guo’s lab investigates how translation impacts human health. Translation is the process by which information encoded in messenger ribonucleic acids (RNAs) is turned into functional proteins. 

The 2014 Physical & Engineering Science fellowship was awarded to Ho Ghim Wei (何锦韦), 39, Associate Professor, Engineering Science, Electrical & Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore for her work in nanomaterials for photocatalysis, which can be used for energy generation and degradation of pollutants through light. 

Christopher Neo, Managing Director of L’Oréal Singapore said For Women In Science Fellows are role models, guides and mentors to a new generation of scientists. “We want to give science.. the image of an attractive and fascinating discipline, especially for young women," he said.

As part of the endowment each fellow receives a grant of S$30,000, along with the prestige of being a L’Oréal For Women In Science Fellow. L’Oréal Singapore has awarded the fellowships consecutively for the past six years; the company received a record 50 applications this year.