Celebrating Women in Chemistry

On the occasion of March 8, the Pôle Chimie in partnership with the Association Femmes & Sciences wanted to honor female chemists, take stock of the place of women in chemistry and present the actions implemented to promote equal opportunities. Renowned chemists will be invited as speakers.

Program :

• 9:30am - 9:45am Welcome/Introduction
• 9h45 - 10h45 Dr Jin Zhang (University of California San Diego)
• 10h45 - 11h Coffee break
• 11am –11:45am Dr May Morris
• 11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Prof. Françoise Conan – President of Femmes & Sciences

Speakers:

• Dr/ Pr. Jin Zhang (University of California San Diego)
  " Illuminating the Biochemical Activity Architecture of the Cell "
• Dr. May Morris (IBMM, Directrice de Recherches CNRS, Référente Femmes & Sciences Occitanie Est, Coordinator of the F&S Mentoring Program)
  " The Women & Science Mentoring Program for Doctoral Students: A success story after 10 years".
• Prof. Françoise Conan (President, Femmes & Sciences, Laboratoire de chimie électrochimie moléculaires et chimie analytique - CEMCA (UMR 6521))
  " Égalité Femmes Hommes, qu'en est-il en chimie?"

About the speakers:

Dr/ Pr. Jin Zhang (UCSD)

Prof. Jin Zhang is a Professor at University California San Diego Dr. Jin Zhang received her Bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University and her PhD in Chemistry from University of Chicago in 2000. After completing her postdoctoral work in the laboratory of the late Roger Tsien at UC San Diego, she joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2003. She was promoted to Professor of Pharmacology in 2013. In 2015 she moved back to UC San Diego and is currently Professor and vice Chair in Department of Pharmacology. Research in her lab focuses on developing enabling technologies to probe the active molecules in their native environment and characterizing how these active molecules change in diseases including cancer. Dr Zhang is a recipient of the Biophysical Society Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award (2009), NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2009), John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology (2012), Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry (2012), NCI Outstanding Investigator Award (2015 and 2022), Robert R. Ruffolo Career Achievement Award in Pharmacology (2022), Protein Society Christian B. Anfinsen Award (2022) and Biophysical Society Carolyn Cohen Innovation Award from (2023). She was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2014, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2019 and a Fellow of American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in 2021. Dr. Zhang also received UC San Diego Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Scholar Mentoring in 2019 and UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Outstanding Graduate Student Mentoring Award in 2022. She currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, on the External Advisory Board for Biophysics of the Johns Hopkins University and on the Basic Sciences External Advisory Council (BSEAC) of Vanderbilt University.

Dr. May C. MORRIS

May C. Morris is a biochemist and CNRS Research Director at the Institut des Biomolécules Max Mousseron, Pôle Chimie Balard Research in Montpellier, where she develops technologies for the diagnosis and therapeutic targeting of anticancer biomarkers.

Of Anglo-Spanish origin, she studied biology at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, then obtained a PhD in biochemistry and biology-health at the University of Montpellier, followed by a post-doctorate at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA, Recruited by the CNRS in 2000, in the "Pharmacology, Bioengineering, Technologies for Health and Biomedical Imaging" section, she first joined the Centre de Recherches en Biochimie Macromoléculaire in Montpellier, then the Institut des Biomolécules Max Mousseron in 2014. Author of over 85 scientific publications, she was awarded the CNRS Bronze Medal in 2006 and the "Chercheuse d'Avenir" Languedoc-Roussillon Region prize in 2009, winner of the Grand Prix Académique MATWIN Oncologie in 2019, she was decorated with the insignia of Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 2020.

May Morris joined the Association Femmes et Sciences in 2008, and has been a member of its Board of Directors since 2013. In particular, she has been involved in setting up and coordinating the Montpellier Femmes & Sciences group, which has 120 members, and in working with young people in schools and at the Fête de la Science. She coordinates the Femmes & Sciences Mentoring Program for female PhD students at the University of Montpellier, which she set up in 2015. She is also a board member of EPWS (European Platform for Women in Science).

Prof. Françoise Conan (President of Femmes & Sciences, Laboratory of Molecular Electrochemistry and Analytical Chemistry - CEMCA (UMR 6521))

Françoise Conan is a professor in the CEMCA laboratory at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale in Brest, working in the inorganic and bioinorganic fields. After completing her university studies in Brest, she defended her doctoral thesis in 1988 in the field of organometallic chemistry of transition metals, with a particular interest in the activation of carbon disulfide. In 1989, she was recruited as a lecturer at the University of Tours, where she worked in the field of bioanalytics. In 1992, back in Brest, once again in the field of inorganic molecular chemistry, she focused her research on the development of hybrid molecular materials, some of them bioinspired. During the 1997-98 academic year, she spent a year at the University of Ottawa in Prof. Sandro Gambarotta's research team. Appointed Professor in 2007, she has held a number of teaching and administrative positions, including a seat on the University's Board of Governors from 2012 to 2016, and in recent years the position of Deputy Director of the Faculty of Science and Technology (2018-2023). A member of the SCF since 1994, she was VP of the Bretagne Pays de Loire regional section (2005-2007), sat on the SCF Board of Directors from 2018 to 2021, and actively championed the creation of an equality group. She is a distinguished senior member of the SCF, class of 2017. Every year, she takes part in the Chemistry & Terroir meetings organized by the Chemistry and Society Commission of the Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie.

Committed to women's and men's equality issues, she was her school's first equality officer from 2012 to 2016, and joined Femmes & Sciences in 2017. A member of the Board since 2020, she was Treasurer from 2022 to 2024. She is currently President. She has been an officer in the Order of Academic Palms since 2024, chevalier class of 2017.