Dr. Agnieszka Gajewicz from the University of Gdańsk was recognized as one of the rising talents of world science by the L`Oréal Foundation and UNESCO. She was honoured for research on chemical risk assessment of various substances.
The list of International Rising Talents - the most promising women scientists - has been announced since 2014 as part of the L`Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science programme. Every year, an additional grant is awarded to 15 women of science from each world region, whose research - according to the organizers - may change the world.
According to L`Oréal`s release sent to PAP, this year the jury of the competition honoured a Polish researcher: Dr. Agnieszka Gajewicz from the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Gdańsk.
Dr Gajewicz is working on the development of chemical informatics. It supports the assessment of the chemical risk posed by new and existing chemical substances (especially nanomaterials). This is particularly important considering the systematic, observed for many years, increase in the number of chemical compounds that may pose a serious threat to human health.
"The possibility to determine the activity and properties of newly designed compounds long before they are actually synthesized allows to reduce not only the time and cost of testing, but also the number of animals used for laboratory tests" - says Dr. Gajewicz. The researcher is also a fellow of the L`Oréal-UNESCO for Women and Science Programme 2017.
Dr Gajewicz is not the first Polish woman among the International Rising Talents. In 2017, the jury awarded Dr. Joanna Sułkowska from the University of Warsaw, honoured for searching for new sources of medicines.
International Rising Talents grants will be presented to the winners in the second half of March at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris during the For Women in Science Week, during which prominent scientists from around the world meet to celebrate women`s contribution to the development of science.
PAP - Science in Poland
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