This week we are featuring two women of color that have used STEM as a means to impact society positively.
Maybank speaks publiclyabout health inequities in an effort to raise awareness and close the gap between social conditions and the quality of healthcare. She is an activist for eliminating race as a risk factor for improper medical care and seeks to spread awareness around the topic. As healthcare concerns have hit an all-time high in the wake of COVID-19, Maybank’s work is more important than ever.
Alia Sabur had a deep interest in science and math starting from a young age. Through her hard work and passion for the field, she set a world record in the STEM field.
Alia Sabur, from New York City, is a child prodigy and mathematician. With her dedication and intelligence, she defied the expectations for women in science and pursued her love for the field.
Dr. Miriam M. Ben-Dayan just recently completed her Ph.D. after eight years of hard work and long nights in the lab in addition to raising her two children. The subject of her thesis was the effect of two oncogenes (genes that can transfer regular cells to tumor cells) of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) on two tumor suppressor genes. Due to the situation with COVID-19, her defense took place over Zoom, which she acknowledges was “very strange” but is grateful that they still took place. Ben-Dayan has already had two papers published and also wrote a paper while on leave after giving birth to her second child.
The push for transparency in the beauty industry has caused China to take official action by improving their 30-year-old cosmetic regulations. Between 2018 and 2019 the beauty industry increased by 40 billion dollars, making cosmetic sales hit a new high and continues to increase. In order to ensure consumer safety as many new companies enter the marketplace, China released a new set of Cosmetic Regulations to hold sellers accountable.
South Korea is world-renowned for its dedication to health and wellness. The most well-known aspect of this is the focus on skincare. One statistic that highlights this is that South Korean men have become the world's biggest male spenders on skincare, according to CNN. But South Korean dedication to health and wellness goes beyond just skincare.
As a part of our Beautiful Minds campaign, we are highlighting three brilliant, female entrepreneurs of color that are utilizing technology as a means to create change. These are the minds that are solving major issues in regards to cosmetic product waste, the lack of diversity in the tech industry, and food scarcity in the US.
Deepika Kurup and Eesha Khare are two young scientists developing important technologies for our world. When they were only teenagers, they invented devices to save the environment.
