Chinese scientist Mee-Mann Chang made the list of five laureates of the 2018 L'Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Awards, an initiative to promote greater gender equality in science, the UN agency said on Thursday in a communique.

At a ceremony scheduled for March 22 at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization "will recognize five leading women scientists and shine a spotlight on 15 talented young female scientists."

This year, the organisers "have recognized five exceptional female scientists," among them Chang, a Chinese professor at the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

She was nominated for "her pioneering work on fossil records leading to insights on how aquatic vertebrates adapted to life and land," UNESCO said in a statement.

The other four laureates are Heather Zar from South Africa, Caroline Dean of Britain, Amy Austin from Argentina and Canada's Janet Rossant.

"Each of the five laureates will receive a prize of 100,000 euros (124,170 U.S. dollars) and be honored for her contribution in the fields of medicine, palaeontology, molecular biology, ecology and developmental biology," it added.

The five scientists were selected by an independent jury of 10 high-profile members of the international science community, chaired this year by Elizabeth Blackburn, laureate of the 2008 award and of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009.

For almost 20 years, the L'Oreal Foundation, in partnership with UNESCO, has celebrated five exceptional female researchers every year and has been committed to promoting equality between women and men in science. 

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