Belfast Biomedical Scientist Wins £15,000 Fellowship

A Belfast-based scientist has won a fellowship for her work on the biomedical applications of ionic liquids.

Geetha Srinivasan is part of the Queen's University Ionic Liquid Laboratories (QUILL) Research Centre.

She is one of four outstanding female scientists to be awarded the 2012 L'Oréal-UNESCO UK and Ireland For Women In Science Fellowships (FWIS).

Dr Srinivasan may spend the £15,000 from her fellowship on whatever she needs in order to continue her research, be that buying scientific equipment or paying for childcare or travel.

The chair of the jury, physics professor Dame Athene Donald, said this is part of the scheme's ethos of providing a "level playing field" for male and female scientists.

Professor Donald is also a Gender Equality Champion at the University of Cambridge and an FWIS Laureate.

The other winners were Silvia Giordani, from Trinity College Dublin, for her work on a new avenue towards "smart" medicines; Katrina Lythgoe, from Imperial College London, for her work in multiscale evolutionary dynamics of important human diseases; and Claire Spottiswoode, from the University of Cambridge, for her work on the genetics of cuckoo egg mimicry.

Professor Donald said: "We had an outstanding shortlist of eight bright young women who care deeply about their areas of study. I am delighted that the scientific community in UK and Ireland is waking up to the fact that we have to provide men and women with a level playing field in scientific study, allowing us judges the privilege of making our selection from such a fantastic shortlist."

(NE)