Celebrating Women in Chemistry

To mark International Women’s Day on March 8, the Chemistry Division, in partnership with the Women & Science Association, sought to honor women chemists, assess the current status of women in chemistry, and present the initiatives implemented to promote equal opportunities. Renowned chemists will be invited to speak at the event.

Program:

• 9:30–9:45 a.m. Welcome/Introduction
• 9:45–10:45 a.m. Dr. Jin Zhang (University of California, San Diego)
• 10:45–11:00 a.m. Coffee break
• 11:00 a.m.–11:45 a.m. Dr. May Morris
• 11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Prof. Françoise Conan – President of Femmes & Sciences

Speakers:

• Dr./Prof. Jin Zhang ( University of California, San Diego)
  “Illuminating the Biochemical Activity Architecture of the Cell”
• Dr. May Morris ( IBMM, CNRS Research Director, Women & Science Liaison for Eastern Occitanie, Coordinator of the Women& Science Mentoring Program)
  “The Women & Science Mentoring Program for Female Doctoral Students: A Look Back at a Success Story After 10 Years”
• Prof. Françoise Conan ( President of Femmes & Sciences, Laboratory of Molecular Electrochemistry and Analytical Chemistry – CEMCA (UMR 6521))
  “Gender Equality: What’s the Situation in Chemistry?”

About the speakers:

Dr. Jin Zhang (UCSD)

Prof. Jin Zhang is a professor at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Jin Zhang received her bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University and her PhD in chemistry from the 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 the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2003. She was promoted to professor of pharmacology in 2013. In 2015, she returned to UC San Diego and is currently a Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Pharmacology. Research in her lab focuses on developing enabling technologies to probe 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), the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (2009), the John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology (2012), the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry (2012), the NCI Outstanding Investigator Award (2015 and 2022), the Robert R. Ruffolo Career Achievement Award in Pharmacology (2022), the Protein Society Christian B. Anfinsen Award (2022), and the Biophysical Society Carolyn Cohen Innovation Award from (2023). She was elected 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 the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in 2021. Dr. Zhang also received the UC San Diego Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Scholar Mentoring in 2019 and the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Outstanding Graduate Student Mentoring Award in 2022. She currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, on the External Advisory Board for Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University, and on the Basic Sciences External Advisory Council (BSEAC) at Vanderbilt University.

Dr. May C. Morris

May C. Morris is a biochemist and CNRS Research Director at the Max Mousseron Institute of Biomolecules, part of the Balard Research Chemistry Cluster Research Montpellier, where she develops technologies for the diagnosis and therapeutic targeting of cancer biomarkers.

Of Anglo-Spanish descent, she earned her degree in biology from the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, followed by a Ph.D. in biochemistry and health biology from the University of Montpellier, and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, USA, Hired by the CNRS in 2000 in the “Pharmacology, Bioengineering, Health Technologies, and Biomedical Imaging” section, she first joined the Center for Research in Macromolecular Biochemistry in Montpellier, then the Max Mousseron Institute of Biomolecules in 2014. Author of more than 85 scientific publications, she was awarded the CNRS Bronze Medal in 2006 and named a “Chercheuse d’Avenir” Languedoc-Roussillon Region in 2009, and the winner of the MATWIN Oncology Academic Grand Prize in 2019; she was awarded the insignia of Knight of the Legion of Honor in 2020.

May Morris joined the Association Femmes et Sciences in 2008 and has served on its board of directors since 2013. She has been particularly involved in establishing and coordinating the Montpellier chapter of Femmes & Sciences, which has 120 members, as well as in outreach activities targeting young people in schools and at the Fête de la Science. She coordinates the Women & Science Mentoring Program for Ph.D. students at the University of Montpellier, which she established in 2015. She is also a member of the board of directors 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 at the CEMCA laboratory at the University of Western Brittany in Brest and specializes in inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry. After completing her undergraduate studies in Brest, she defended her doctoral thesis in 1988 in the field of organometallic chemistry of transition metals, with a particular focus on the activation of carbon disulfide. Hired in 1989 as an associate professor at the University of Tours, she worked in the field of bioanalytics. In 1992, upon returning to Brest, she returned to the field of molecular inorganic chemistry and focused her research on the development of hybrid molecular materials, some of which were bio-inspired. During the 1997–98 academic year, she spent a year conducting research at the University of Ottawa as part of Professor Sandro Gambarotta’s team. Appointed Professor in 2007, she has held numerous teaching and administrative responsibilities, notably serving on the university’s board of directors from 2012 to 2016 and, in recent years, serving as associate dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology (2018–2023). A member of the SCF since 1994, she served as Vice President of the Brittany-Pays de Loire regional section (2005–2007), sat on the SCF Board of Directors from 2018 to 2021, and actively advocated for the creation of an equality group. She is a Distinguished Senior Member of the SCF, class of 2017. In addition, she participates annually in the “Chimie & Terroir” meetings organized by the Chemistry and Society Commission of the Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie.

Committed to gender equality issues and serving as her institution’s first gender equality officer from 2012 to 2016, she joined Femmes & Sciences in 2017. A member of the board of directors since 2020, she served as treasurer from 2022 to 2024. She is currently the organization’s president. She has been an Officer of the Order of Academic Palms since 2024, having been named a Knight in the 2017 class.