Celebrating Women in Chemistry

On March 8, the Chemistry Division, in partnership with the Women & Science Association, wanted to honor women chemists, take stock of the place of women in chemistry, and present the actions taken to promote equal opportunities. Renowned chemists will be invited as speakers.

Program:

• 9:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. Welcome/Introduction
• 9:45 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Dr. Jin Zhang (University of California San Diego)
• 10:45 a.m. – 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 (Women & Science)

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 Representative for Eastern Occitanie, Coordinator of the Women& Science Mentoring Program)
  "The Women & Science Mentoring Program for Doctoral Students: Review/Assessment of 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 in chemistry: what is the situation?"

About the speakers:

Dr. Jin Zhang (UCSD)

Prof. Jin Zhang is a Professor at 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 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 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), 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 Max Mousseron Biomolecules Institute, Balard Research Chemistry Center Research Montpellier, where she develops technologies for the diagnosis and therapeutic targeting of anti-cancer biomarkers.

Of Anglo-Spanish origin, she studied biology at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, then completed a PhD in biochemistry and health biology at the University of Montpellier, followed by postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, USA. Recruited 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 for Biomolecules in 2014. Author of more than 85 scientific publications, she was awarded the CNRS Bronze Medal in 2006 and was named "Researcher of the Future" of the Languedoc-Roussillon region in 2009 and 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 (Women and Science Association) in 2008 and has been a member of its board of directors since 2013. She has been particularly involved in setting up and coordinating the Montpellier branch of Femmes & Sciences, which has 120 members, in outreach activities with young people in schools and at the Fête de la Science science festival. She coordinates the Women & Science Mentoring Program for Doctoral Students at the University of Montpellier, which she set up 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 works in the fields of inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry. 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. Recruited in 1989 as a lecturer at the University of Tours, she worked in the field of bioanalytics. In 1992, she returned to Brest, once again in the field of inorganic molecular chemistry, where she 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 Prof. 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, as deputy director of the Faculty of Science and Technology (2018-2023). A member of the SCF since 1994, she was VP 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 each year in the Chemistry & Terroir meetings of the Chemistry and Society Commission of the Maison de la Chimie Foundation.

Committed to gender equality issues, she was the first equality officer at her institution from 2012 to 2016. She joined Femmes & Sciences in 2017 and has been a member of the board of directors since 2020, serving as treasurer from 2022 to 2024. She is currently the president of the organization. She has been an officer in the Order of Academic Palms since 2024 and a knight since 2017.