WOMEN+ SYMPOSIUM
2021 AWARDS
Learn more about the Symposium on the Women+ Website.
On October 3rd, we have had the pleasure to reward a selection of amazing women making an impact in STEM fields so early in their career.
Honorary award for an early career female scientist in STEM before PhD
The Honorary award winner for an early career female scientist in STEM before PhD was Ariadne Nichol, selected on October 3rd 2021 by the WOMEN+ Symposium jury. Additionally to the award certificate, Ariadne will be receiving a monetary reward of 300€ paid out to the winner by the organization IVUnited. The rewarded sum was donated to IVUnited for the occasion of WOMEN+ Symposium by the Swiss Association of Greek Scientists.
Award Winner
Ariadne Nichol
About Ariadne Nichol is a medical student at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and a part-time researcher at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. She earned her bachelors degree in Human Biology from Stanford University, where she graduated with Honors in Ethics in Society and was a Public Service Scholar. She has a technical background in molecular biology along with public health experience at United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Currently, Ariadne examines the ethical implications of utilizing new scientific techniques and biotechnologies such as artificial intelligence in medicine.
Finalists in the Honorary Award for an early career female scientist in STEM before PhD Category: Ariadne Nichol, Nafsika Papaioanou, Kyriaki Dariva.
MATHEMATICS AWARD
Award Winner
Zoi Terzopoulou
Zoi Terzopoulou is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Paris-Dauphine. She has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Athens, a postgraduate degree in Logic and a PhD in Informatics from the University of Amsterdam. She has also been a visiting researcher at the University of Technology in Singapore, the University of Bergen in Norway, and the Research Institute of Economics in Paris. Her research is interdisciplinary, with core mathematical models of collective decision making. She has been featured in international artificial intelligence conferences in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, as well as in major economics journals.
Finalists in the Mathematics Award Category: Zoi Terzopoulou, Effie Papageorgiou, Eirini Gkolfi.
Biosciences awards
The Biosciences Award winner Magda Bletsa, was selected on October 3rd 2021 by the WOMEN+ Symposium jury. Additionally to the award certificate, Magda will be receiving a monetary reward of 150€ paid out to the winner by The Hellenic Bioscientific Association.
Award Winner
Magda Bletsa
Magda Bletsa is a postdoctoral researcher at the Rega Institute, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium). She obtained her MSc and BSc degrees from the Department of Biochemistry & Biotechnology, University of Thessaly. In 2021, she completed her PhD in Biomedical Sciences. In brief, her research focuses on viral evolution and pathogen molecular epidemiology. She is particularly interested in identifying the evolutionary processes that shape viral genetic diversity using a combination of wet-lab approaches (controlled experiments, high-throughput sequencing) and computational tools (bioinformatics, phylogenetics, phylodynamics).
Finalists in the Honorary Award for an early career female scientist in STEM after PhD Category : Name, Name, Name.
Engineering Awards
The Engineering Award winner Eva Pappa was selected on October 3rd 2021 by the WOMEN+ Symposium jury. Additionally to the award certificate, Eva will be receiving a monetary reward of 200€ paid out to the winner by MONOLITHOS Catalysts and Recycling Ltd.
Award Winner
Eva Pappa
Evanthia (Eva) Pappa is a Material Scientist who holds a Master’s in Polymer Science and Technology both at the University of Patras, in Greece. She completed her PhD studies in the field of composite materials at the University of Edinburgh, in United Kingdom. She served as an Early- Career Marie-Curie Researcher in Ireland, a Teaching Assistant in the UK and she did her internship at Carlos III Universidad de Madrid in Spain. At the moment she is working as a Researcher at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) dealing with materials and project development. She is involved in many extra-curriculum activities as well as to many volunteering initiatives and her moto is “Everything happens for a reason”.
Finalists in the Honorary Award for an early career female scientist in STEM after PhD Category: Eva Pappa, Charikleia Stoura, Iliana Papadopoulou.
Physics Awards
The Physics Award winner Stella Tsilia, was selected on October 3rd 2021 by the WOMEN+ Symposium jury. Additionally to the award certificate, Stella will be receiving a monetary reward of 150€ paid out to the winner by Ocean Industries.
Award Winner
Stella Tsilia
Stella studied Physics in Athens, and obtained a masters degree in Astronomy at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She has been extensively involved in science communication and STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics), as well as volunteering. She has taught educational robotics, for children and adults as well as workshops on science, space and teaching. She has been a member of organizing teams for scientific events. She currently works on software development. She loves the sea, the starry sky and the adventures, and she believes in the positive change that each of us can bring to the world.
Finalists in the Honorary Award for an early career female scientist in STEM after PhD Category: Stella Tsilia, Iouliana Chrysafi, Georgia Kanli.
Technology Awards
The Technology Award winner Eleftheria Briakou, was selected on October 3rd 2021 by the WOMEN+ Symposium jury. Additionally to the award certificate, Eleftheria will be receiving a monetary reward of 100€ paid out to the winner by PenguinSoft.
Award Winner
Eleftheria Briakou
Eleftheria is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a member of the CLIP lab advised by Marine Carpuat. Eleftheria’s research interests span various Natural Language Processing (NLP) fields such as computational semantics, machine translation, style transfer, crowdsourcing, generation evaluation and metrics, among others. Her Ph.D. work focuses on detecting differences in meaning across languages and explores how they question common assumptions related to using data when developing NLP technology.
Finalists in the Honorary Award for an early career female scientist in STEM after PhD Category: Eleftheria Briakou, Gloria Dwomoh, Konstantina Rodi.
Honorary award for an early career female scientist in STEM after PhD
The Honorary award winner for an early career female scientist in STEM after PhD was Eleftheria Efthymiou, selected on October 3rd 2021 by the WOMEN+ Symposium jury. Additionally, to the award certificate, Eleftheria will be receiving a monetary reward of 500€ paid out to the winner by the organization IVunited. The rewarded sum was donated to IVUnited for the occasion of WOMEN+ Symposium by Deloitte.
Award Winner
Eleftheria Efthymiou
Eleftheria (Elina) is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at York College of Pennsylvania. Her academic journey started in Xanthi where she obtained her 5-year Diploma in Civil Engineering from Democritus University of Thrace. She holds a MSc in Bridge Engineering and obtained her PhD in Structural Engineering from City, University of London. She spent two years in Dallas, TX conducting post-doctoral research in structural and earthquake engineering before she joined York College. Her research interests vary from structural dynamics and bridge engineering to earthquake engineering and engineering seismology. Elina is passionate about educating the future generations of Engineers.
Finalists in the Honorary Award for an early career female scientist in STEM after PhD Category: Eleftheria Efthymiou, Nikoleta Glynatsi, Aggeliki Chanteli.
Medicine Awards
The Biosciences Award winner Foteini Vasilopoulou, was selected on October 3rd 2021 by the WOMEN+ Symposium jury. Additionally to the award certificate, Foteini will be receiving a monetary reward of 150€ paid out to the winner by The Hellenic Bioscientific Association.
Award Winner
Foteini Vasilopoulou
Foteini obtained her BSc in Pharmacy from the University of Athens, Greece (Sep. 2016). Soon after graduation, she joined the group of Prof. Mercè Pallàs at the University of Barcelona, Spain, where she recently completed her PhD (Cum Laude) in Neuropharmacology/Biotechnology (Sep. 2021). In the context of her PhD, she participated in a multidisciplinary drug discovery project, investigating the neuroprotective role of selective I2-Imidazoline receptor ligands using in vivo and in vitro models of Alzheimer’s disease and neurodegeneration. In her next career step, she aspires to investigate complex Alzheimer’s disease mechanisms with an overarching goal to identify new targets and biomarkers for therapeutic interventions.
Finalists in the Honorary Award for an early career female scientist in STEM after PhD Category: Foteini Vasilopoulou, Marina Anastasiou, Myrto Moutafi.
Chemistry Awards
The Chemistry Award winner Zoi Piperigkou, was selected on October 3rd 2021 by the WOMEN+ Symposium jury. Additionally to the award certificate, Zoi will be receiving a monetary reward of 150€ paid out to the winner by The Regional Department of Peloponnese and West Greece of Association of Greek Chemists.
Award Winner
Zoi Piperigkou
About paragraph
Finalists in the Honorary Award for an early career female scientist in STEM after PhD Category: Zoi Piperigkou, Apostolia Tsiasioti, Eugenia Vasileiadou.
Congratulations to all the winners and finalists.
Big thanks to all our donors, sponsors, collaborators, volunteers and management teams for making these awards possible.
See you all next year.
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