Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.
Anna Wenzel, professor of chemistry at Scripps College, a liberal arts educational institution for women in Claremont, California, has been awarded a $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to explore the catalytic formation of compounds that are crucial for industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to agriculture. A faculty member with the women’s college since 2006, Dr. Wenzel will use her funding to investigate how to develop safer, more reliable, and economical ways of producing these compounds.
Boston University was recently awarded a $4.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to connect senior and junior faculty interested in women’s health research. Over the next three years, the funds will allow three early-career faculty members per year to participate in a two-year research program under the mentorship of senior faculty. The junior faculty participants will also receive individualized career development support and participate in research meetings and annual conferences. The program will have a particular focus on themes of addiction science, maternal and child health, and sex influences on health outcomes.
Kathrin Plath, professor of biological chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, has received a $2.4 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to advance stem-cell based treatments for female-specific diseases. The award will allow Dr. Plath to continue her work investigating why X-chromosome inactivation erosion occurs during cell culture. Through this research, Dr. Plath aims to create more accurate disease modeling that can make more effective stem cell therapies for female patients.