FACULTY AWARD: Bassler to receive L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award

by Morgan Kelly

Princeton University professor Bonnie Bassler was among five scientists worldwide selected to receive the 2012 For Women in Science Award presented by UNESCO and cosmetics company L’Oréal. The award, now in its 14th year, recognizes women whose work promotes the advancement of science. Bassler and her fellow honorees will receive their awards and a prize of $100,000 during a March 22 ceremony at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Bassler, who is the Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology , is the second Princeton recipient after President Shirley M. Tilghman, a renowned molecular biologist who received the award in 2002 . Bassler has been a faculty member at the University since 1994 and is best known for her efforts to understand quorum sensing, the process by which bacteria communicate.

In addition to Bassler, who was named North American laureate, the other recipients of the 2012 For Women in Science award are: Jill Farrant, professor and research chair of plant molecular physiology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa; Ingrid Scheffer, chair of paediatric neurology research at the University of Melbourne in Australia; Frances Ashcroft, professor of physiology, anatomy and genetics at the University of Oxford; and Susana López, professor of developmental genetics and molecular physiology at the National University of Mexico.