News

ISSP UL young researcher receives prestigious L`Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science award

On September 6, L`Oréal, in cooperation with the Academies of Sciences of the Baltic States and UNESCO National Commissions, awarded seven talented Baltic female scientists the prestigious For Women in Science Award. One of the three scientists from Latvia who received the award and a 7000 euro award for conducting research was a doctoral student from ISSP UL’s Laboratory of Optical Materials M.sc.ing. Katrina Laganovska.

Katrīna Laganovska received the award and support for her further studies of optical properties and defects in ferroelectric metal oxides. This will allow her research ferroelectric field effect transistors, which, if successful and scalable, could be used in next-generation computers, opening the door to a whole new computer architecture.

At the awards ceremony, the president of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Ivars Kalviņš, emphasized that this year, “36 young female scientists from Latvia applied for the program - 17 Doctors of Sciences and 19 doctoral students, submitting high-quality research projects. This year, the award went to specialists in physics, material sciences, chemistry, and molecular biology. The research developed by them corresponds to Latvia’s priority directions in science and will serve as a basis for the development of prospective scientific directions and encourage young women to develop careers in science,"

The program for women in science in Latvia was established 19 years ago by the patron of the program, Dr. Vaira Vīke-Freiberga (President of Latvia from 1999 to 2007). L’Oréal implements the Women in Science program in cooperation with the Academies of Sciences of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania and UNESCO national commissions.

The International Program for Women in Science was launched in 1998. Since then, L`Oréal and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have committed to increasing the number of women in scientific research. Therefore, over the past 25 years, L`Oréal and UNESCO’s Women in Science program has supported female scientists at crucial stages of their careers, making a significant contribution to the development of science and promoting gender equality in the field of science.