L'Oréal Japan (President and CEO: Jean-Pierre Charriton) announced the winners of the 2021 (16th) "L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards, Japan Fellowship" on November 9th, 2021. The award ceremony was held on November 4th at the Embassy of France in Japan (Minami-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo). This year, Yuki Okoda (JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Science, University of Tokyo) and Mariko Kadowaki (Researcher, Research Center for Structural Materials, National Institute for Materials Science) were awarded in the field of "material science". Yuri Ohkubo (JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Science, Nagoya University) and Rina Nagata (Researcher, Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University) were awarded in the field of "life science"".
From left to right in the back row: Kazuhiro Nagata (Director General, JT Biohistory Research Hall), Yasushi Taguchi (Secretary General, Japanese National Commission for UNESCO), Philippe Seton (Ambassador of France to Japan), Charriton (President and CEO, L'Oréal Japan), and Kazuo Kitahara (Professor emeritus, International Christian University) Provided by
The research titles and contents of the awardees are as follow:
Ms. Okoda's award winning research theme is "The 'beginning' of stars and planets unraveled by substances spreading in the universe." Ms. Okoda uses the ALMA Radio Telescope in Chile, South America, to observe newborn stars and surrounding molecules and study their growth. Using the observed molecules, she reported that a rotating disk structure, a 'protodisk', serves as the origin of planets such as Earth around a new star, and that the planetary system is created almost at the same time as the star. Furthermore, she revealed that the growth process is accompanied by intense activity.
Ms. Kadowaki was awarded for her research on "Analysis of microelectrochemical properties of carbon steel and creation of new highly corrosion-resistant steel". Ms. Kadowaki is studying the phenomenon of corrosion resistance from a microscopic point of view, analyzing metal structure and atoms, with the aim of overcoming the problem of corrosion using carbon steel. She used computer simulations to clarify why "martensite", in which carbon atoms are dissolved in the crystal structure of iron, has excellent corrosion resistance. Conventionally, rare elements have been used to improve the corrosion resistance of steel materials, but it has been established that even non-rare elements can be used to ensure high corrosion resistance.
The award-winning theme Ms. Ohkubo studied is "clarification of signal molecules that control nitrogen absorption in plants". Ms. Okubo studies how plants efficiently absorb nitrogen from the soil. She discovered the hormone "CEPD", which is synthesized in the leaves when the roots detect a deficiency of nitrogen in the soil, and clarified the transmission system and the mechanism by which nitrogen absorption is promoted.
Ms. Nagata was awarded for her research into "clarification of the mechanism of removing defective cells by cell competition". Ms. Nagata studies the phenomenon of elimination of abnormal and defective cells in tissues by cell competition. Genetic screening using Drosophila revealed that mutations in genes involved in autophagy led to abolition of cell competition. She further demonstrated that in defective cells near normal cells, autophagy is activated, and cell death genes are induced.
Kyoko Nozaki (Professor, School of Engineering, University of Tokyo), who won the 2021 "L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards", also attended the award ceremony, and left the winners with the message, "I want young researchers to decide for themselves a life that they will not regret, that's all."
This article has been translated by JST with permission from The Science News Ltd.(https://sci-news.co.jp/). Unauthorized reproduction of the article and photographs is prohibited.