Tunisian Physicist Wins 'Women in Science' Award
Each year, a jury headed by a Nobel Prize winner awards five female scientists -- one from each continent -- US$100,000 for their research in what are called the L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Awards. This year's awards coincide with the World Year of Physics and focus on material sciences.
The winner for Africa is the Tunisian Zohra Ben Lakhdar, a professor at the University of Tunis, Tunisia, and member of the Islamic Academy of Sciences, was chosen for her work in infrared light spectroscopy and its applications in a wide range of fields, from astrophysics to agriculture.
She has developed advanced methods to study the influence of pollutants such as methane and metals, on the quality of air, water and plants. Ben Lakhdar is the first woman to be a director of a university science laboratory in Tunis.
Furthermore, Prof. Ben Lakhdar is the author of many scientific papers in physics and mathematics and has been a founding member of the Tunisian Physics Society and a founding member of the Tunisian Astronomy Society.
Prof. Ben Lakhdar has contributed to over six university textbooks and has had over twenty technical works published.
[More: SciDev.Net, BabNet]
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