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Embassy of Malaysia
Paris

PRESS RELEASE

5/06                                                                                                               6 March 2006

MALAYSIAN RESEARCHER AWARDED THE L’OREAL- UNESCO
FELLOWSHIP FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE

Malaysian Ambassador to France, H.E. Dato’ Hamidah Mohd Yusoff (third from right) together with Mr. Jean-François Couvé, L’Oreal Malaysia Managing Director and L’OREAL-UNESCO Fellow, Miss Nyon Mun Peak  (fourth and fifth from right).

A Malaysian scientist from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Miss Nyon Mun Peak, 25, was awarded the L’OREAL-UNESCO Fellowship for ‘Women in Science’ program with fifteen other young women scientists from around the world. The award ceremony was held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on Thursday, 2 March 2006. Under the fellowship, Miss Nyon received a grant of US$20,000 which will allow her to pursue her research on structural biology at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.

Among those present at the ceremony were H.E. Dato’ Hamidah Mohd Yusoff, the Ambassador of Malaysia to France; H.E. Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, the Director-General of UNESCO; Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones, Chairman  and CEO of L’Oreal and Mr. Jean-François Couvé, Managing Director of L’Oreal Malaysia.

Miss Nyon’s research on structural biology focuses on the study of the three dimensional structure of cutinase, a fungal enzyme of great interest to the detergent industry. By solving the structure of this enzyme, she hopes that it could be of good use to the detergent and the plastic industries in Malaysia. The L’OREAL-UNESCO Fellowship grant will allow her to continue her research project for six months at the Krebs Institute for Biomolecular Research, University of Sheffield, England.   

 The L’OREAL-UNESCO International Fellowships for ‘Women in Science’ has been given since the year 2000 to fifteen promising young women scientists in the life sciences. The L’OREAL-UNESCO Fellowships encourage international scientific co-operation and the developing of cross-cultural networks allowing women scientists to support their research projects as guest scientists in laboratories outside their home countries. The beneficiaries, who are all at the doctorate or post-doctorate level, each received a grant of up to US$40,000, which can cover up to two years of research. Their work are grouped under four themes, namely preserving bio-diversity, decoding life in the extreme, detection for improved targeting and ecosystem sentinels.

While in Paris, Miss Nyon was hosted to a morning coffee by H.E. Ambassador Dato’ Hamidah Mohd Yusoff at the Ambassador’s Residence. The morning coffee was also attended by Mr. Jean-François Couvé, Managing Director of L’Oreal Malaysia; Encik Muhammad Zain Ibrahim, L’Oreal Malaysia’s Corporate Communications Manager; Ms. Tracy Foo, L’Oreal Malaysia’s Consumer Service Executive; Tunku Azamiah Tunku Abdul Majid, Counsellor of the Malaysian Embassy and Mrs. Aureen Jean Nonis, Director of MATRADE Paris. Three journalists from the Malaysian media namely The Star, TV 3 and Sin Chew daily were also present at the event.

The L’OREAL-UNESCO Fellowships award given to Miss Nyon Mun Peak will hopefully encourage more Malaysian women scientists to pursue their interest in science and carry out research that will benefit mankind.

Encl : Photo caption  

  
Embassy of Malaysia
6 March 2006