Alison Fout is one of four early-career women scientists who received $50,000 grants to kick-start their academic research careers 15 October in an awards ceremony at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
These grants are the first presentation of the Marion Milligan Mason Awards for Women in the Chemical Sciences, administered by AAAS with $2.2 million in funding from the Marion Milligan Mason Fund.
Professor Fout's project title for her award winning research was: "Nitrite Reduction in a Non-Heme System: Evidence for an Alternative Mechanism".
Fout states, "I am honored and humbled to have been selected for the Marion Milligan Mason Award for Women in the Chemical sciences by AAAS. This prestigious award will not only allow my research group to further pursue the reduction of nitrite, an essential biological process for regulating blood pressure, but also provides additional leadership and mentoring opportunites for early-career female scientists."
Women scientists and researchers continue to face obstacles in advancing their careers, representing 30 percent of principal investigators on research grants, according to the National Institutes of Health. Too often, those that distinguish themselves don’t advance at the same pace as men or receive the same recognition — an effect AAAS president Geraldine Richmond calls, "the polycarbonate ceiling".
"We received 190 proposals from 123 colleges and universities. This was four times as many proposals as we expected," said Yolanda George, AAAS deputy director and program director of education and human resources programs. &qThis large number of proposals points to the need for both funding and early national career recognition for women who are doing innovative research."
Partially excerpted from AAAS announcement of awards.