Johnson & Johnson recently announced six winners for its 2019 Women in STEM2D Scholars Award. Each winner will receive $150,000 in funding and three years of mentorship from the company.
Johnson & Johnson launched its Women in STEM2D (WiSTEM2D) Scholars Award in 2017 to encourage the development of female STEM2D leaders by awarding and sponsoring women. Each of the award women will have their research supported as part of the program.
Female scholars from the science, technology, engineering, math, manufacturing and design disciplines were nominated. Johnson & Johnson had an independent advisory board that selected winners from more than 400 qualified applications from across the world. The company will recognize the winners at an April 24 ceremony at its New Brunswick, N.J. headquarters.
“Through this award and other programs, Johnson & Johnson is working to increase the participation of women in STEM2D fields worldwide,” Cat Oyler, VP of global public health, tuberculosis at Johnson & Johnson and WiSTEM2D university sponsor, said in a press release. “We want to nourish the development of women leaders building a larger pool of highly trained, female researchers so that they can lead STEM2D breakthroughs in the future.”
The winners of the award include:
- Science: Dr. Naama Geva-Zatorsky, assistant professor of medicine at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, is currently studying interactions between gut microbes and the immune system to use them to improve health.
- Technology: Dr. Shengxi Huang, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Penn State University, is developing a device to measure different biomolecules to bring illness detection to one device.
- Engineering: Dr. Ronke Olabisi, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Rutgers University, is developing a hydrogel that can be placed over an injury to continuously supply stem cell growth factors and insulin to heal burns, chronic wounds and lesions.
- Manufacturing: Dr. Grace X. Gu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, is developing a 3D printer that self-corrects during a printing job while using a number of materials to make things like stronger prosthetics.
- Math: Dr. Rebecca Morrison, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is identifying flexible algorithms that run mathematical calculations on variable quickly and accurately.
- Design: Dr. Katia Vega, assistant professor of design at UC Davis, is experimenting with biosensors and interactive skin to help people who have diabetes or severe burns.
