Nominate now for the 2019 Awards for Brazilian Women in Chemistry

It is always nice to be able to recognize people’s contributions to science with an award. If they are women and from a country where they represent a minority of leadership positions, like in Brazil, then that makes the accolade a bit more special.

Last year C&EN had the opportunity to partner with our colleagues from CAS, a division of ACS, to launch the Awards for Brazilian Women in Chemistry and Related Sciences. With support from the American Chemical Society and the Brazilian Chemical Society (SBQ), our goal was to promote gender equality in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in Brazil, as well as to highlight the impact of diversity on scientific research and in the field of chemistry.

The call for nominations was very successful and yielded better-than-expected results for both the volume and quality of entries given the awards were in their first year. On Sept. 11, 2018, we were delighted to be able to recognize Clarissa Piccinin Frizzo of the Federal University of Santa Maria, Cristiane Aparecida Furtado Canto of Oxiteno and the University of Campinas, and Susana Inés Córdoba de Torresi of the University of São Paulo, who were honored during a symposium held at the São Paulo Research Foundation in Brazil.

We just opened the nominations for the 2019 awards, and we are looking for outstanding Brazilian chemists to come forward. Please self-nominate or nominate your peers.

We are looking for individuals that fit in the following three categories:

Early career. This award recognizes the achievements of an outstanding young chemical scientist or entrepreneur. This exceptional scientist will be younger than 40 years old and no more than 10 years removed from earning a PhD.

Leadership in industry. This award recognizes an individual working in the chemical industry whose research and creative innovations have led to discoveries that contributed to commercial success and, consequently, to the good of the community and society.

Leadership in academia. This award recognizes an established academic who has made an important contribution with a global and societal impact to scientific research in chemistry or a related science.

I’m also happy to report that this year, in addition to ACS and SBQ, we have expanded the number of supporting organizations to include the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the Brazilian Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the Brazilian Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the Brazilian Society of Pharmacognosy. All these societies understand the value that diversity, inclusion, and respect bring to research and the scientific conversation and are willing to stand behind and support this effort.

You have until the end of August to let us know of any candidates you think are deserving of this recognition. The nomination form is available at cenm.ag/BrazilianChemAwards.

The winners will take part in a symposium on diversity that will take place in São Paulo in October.

Views expressed on this page are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACS.