12/02/2021

The 2021 For Women in Science Award announces its winners.

Alicia Dickenstein em palestra no Encontro Mundial de Mulheres na Matemática (WM)², em 2018.

Argentine mathematician Alicia Dickenstein, professor at the University of Buenos Aires and vice-president of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), was one of the winners of the 2021 For Women in Science award. Granted by the L'Oréal Foundation and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), the award annually recognizes and supports five outstanding female researchers worldwide in the fields of physical sciences, mathematics, and computer science for their contributions to scientific research.

Winner for the Latin America and Caribbean region, Alicia was awarded for her outstanding contributions to the forefront of mathematical innovation, leveraging algebraic geometry in the field of molecular biology. “Her research allows scientists to understand the precise structures and behavior of cells and molecules, even at a microscopic scale. Operating at the frontier between pure and applied mathematics, she has established important links with physics and chemistry and enabled biologists to gain a deep structural understanding of biochemical reactions and enzyme networks,” organizers said in a statement.

Argentine mathematician Alicia Vieira attended the 32nd Brazilian Mathematics Colloquium at IMPA in July 2019. With her presentation “Towards a multivariate Descartes' rule (but still far away)”, she opened the plenary lecture series of the event. She was also one of the invited speakers at the World Meeting of Women in Mathematics (WM)² , a parallel event of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2018, held in Rio de Janeiro.

There were more than 290 nominations of scientists from 66 different countries. Chaired by IMPA's extraordinary researcher and winner of the Fields Medal in 2014, Artur Avila, the jury committee was composed of 12 renowned scientists from different scientific fields and geographical regions. The result was announced this Thursday (11), the date of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The winners will each receive 100,000 euros (R$ 651,000).

French astrophysicist Françoise Combes (Europe), chemist Catherine Ngila (Africa and Arab States), chemist Kyoko Nozaki (Asia-Pacific), and computer scientist Shafi Goldwasser (North America) were the other recipients of the award in the 23rd edition.