Three Women Conducting Research in the U.S. Win International Rising Talents Awards

Three women scientists currently conducting research in the United States were recently honored in Paris as International Rising Talents by the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science program. The program seeks to boost the careers of the award recipients by offering them additional grant support and international recognition.

“The women selected for the International Rising Talents program represent the future of science, and L’Oréal is proud to honor these promising young researchers at a critical juncture in their careers,” said Lauren Paige, Vice President of Public Affairs and Strategic Initiatives at L’Oréal USA. “L’Oréal is committed to supporting the next generation of women in STEM who are conducting groundbreaking research at some of the world’s leading institutions.”

Here are brief biographies of the three winners currently conducting research in the United States.

Mary Caswell Stoddard is a junior fellow in the department of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University. Her research is focused on the evolutionary history of bird eggs. Dr. Stoddard is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale University where she majored in biology. She holds a Ph.D.  in zoology from the University of Cambridge in England.

Ariela Vergara-Jaque is a postdoctoral research fellow at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland. She is conducting research on proteins in cell membranes with the goal of identifying which parts of the proteins might be targeted by drugs to fight disease. Dr. Vergara is a native of Chile and earned a Ph.D. in applied science at the University of Talca in Chile.

Bhama Ramkhelawon is a postdoctoral fellow at the Langone School of Medicine at New York University. Her research is focused on cardiovascular disease as it relates to obesity and diabetes. She holds a Ph.D. in biology from the Université Denis Diderot in Paris, France.