Since 2007, a total of 96 awards, each worth $40,000, have been granted to young women PhDs who plan a scientific career.

Weizmann Institute of Science. (photo credit:MICHAEL JACOBSON/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

Eleven young women scientists who have excelled in their doctoral studies have received grants from a unique program of Rehovot’s Weizmann Institute of Science. Since 2007, a total of 96 awards, each worth $40,000, have been granted to young women PhDs who plan a scientific career.

The program is designed to advance women in the fields of natural sciences (physics, chemistry, and the life sciences) and the exact sciences (mathematics and computer science). The aim of the program is to close the significant gap that still exists between men and women in high academic ranks.

Only on Sunday did the Israel Academy of Sciences and the Council for Higher Education release a report over one year in the making bemoaning the low representation of women among senior scientists in the universities and colleges. Recommendations were presented to Science, Technology and Space Minister Danny Danon on how to help young women do post-doctoral work and reach assistant and full professorships.

The Weizmann grants, funded by contributions, enable outstanding women with doctorates in science to accept offers from labs in other countries, giving them an incentive and helping those with partners and/or children for whom a move entails an added strain.

The program seeks to cultivate a cadre of women leaders in Israeli science.