A book newly acquired by the Thammasat University Libraries discusses how one famous woman scientist became so well known. Making Marie Curie: Intellectual Property and Celebrity Culture in an Age of Information is about the Polish-born physicist and chemist Curie (1867–1934), who researched radioactivity. She was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize and the only woman to receive them in two subjects, physics and chemistry. In 2009, Curie was named the most inspirational female scientist of all time in a survey in New Scientist Magazine. How did she become so famous? The author Eva Hemmungs Wirtén, a professor at Linköping University, Sweden, has also written on intellectual property rights and related issues. The book explores how scientific women were treated at the time of Curie, and other factors contributing to her celebrity. For example, despite her great fame, Curie was never permitted to join the French Academy of Sciences. The TU Libraries also own other books about this remarkable researcher.

Thailand’s Women Scientists

In 2007, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics estimated that only 27 per cent of the world’s science researchers are women. Thailand has 50.3 percent women scientists, meaning that in terms of sheer numbers, hiring is equal. This is much better than in Japan, where only 13 percent of scientists are women, Bangladesh with 14 percent, and India, Korea, and Nepal, in all of which women are around 15 percent of all scientists. Thailand has done better than these countries, being classed alongside the Philippines, Kazakhstan, and others who have about fifty percent of women working in this profession. Even so, Myanmar has considerably stronger results, with over 85 percent of researchers being women.

To keep progressing in the right direction, since 2002 L’Oreal (Thailand) and the Thailand National Commission for UNESCO has sponsored For Women in Science Fellowships. As The Nation reported last year, For Women in Science fellowships offer 250,000 baht grants to Thai women scientists aged from 25 to 40. L’Oreal, the world’s largest cosmetics company, is based in France. L’Oréal concentrates on hair color, skin care, sun protection, make-up, perfumes and hair care, adding a welcome sense of glamour to the field of science, something like the fame that surrounded Marie Curie. Yet L’Oréal also uses science to a high degree in such fields as the dermatology, toxicology, tissue engineering, and biopharmaceutical research fields. It has the most patents for nanotechnology, or manipulating matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale, in the United States. Last year For Women in Science fellowships went to six Thai women researching in such fields as agriculture and curing cancer. Over 13 years, it has funded research by 55 female scientists. In 2015, life sciences awardees were Assistant Professors Watcharin Loilome of Khon Kaen University for a study on “Risk Biomarkers Discovery for Screening and Surveillance of Cholangiocarcinoma” and Benjamas Cheirsilp of Prince of Songkla University for her research on the “Isolation and Screening of Oleaginous Fungi for Bioconversion of Lignocellulosic Wastes from Palm Oil Mill to Biodiesel Feedstocks.” As The Nation noted:

In material sciences, the fellowships went to Associate Professors Sirilux Poompradub of Chulalongkorn University for her study “Development process and improvement of properties of natural rubber products for industrial applications and environmental friendliness” and Siwaporn Meejoo Smith of Mahidol University for “Materials innovation for environmental applications”. The chemistry grants to Mahidol University associate professors Darunee Soorukram for her study “Asymmetric Synthesis of Bioactive Secolignan Isolated from Thai Medicinal Plants” and Pattaraporn Kim for “Syngas Production from Carbon dioxide and Water through Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell”.

Dr. Watcharin’s study involved ways to find early diagnosis and effective treatment of a form of cancer involving mutated cells in the bile duct. Dr. Benjamas’ research was on a method of creating renewable energy from the natural breakdown of waste, reducing energy costs and import dependency and increasing industrial competitiveness in the Kingdom. Dr. Sirilux offered ideas about how Thailand can improve its rubber industry while sustaining natural resources. Dr. Siwaporn aimed at implementing low-cost environmental-protection plans and pollution clean-up systems in small industrial sectors and rural areas. Dr. Darunee studied natural compounds in Thai medicinal plants, important for pharmaceutical study and organic chemistry. Dr. Pattaraporn addressed the issue of excessive carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. All of the award recipients were clearly involved with practical questions with real potential benefits for the Thai people and wider international community. As Khun Sitanun Sittikit, corporate communications manager of L’Oreal (Thailand), told The Nation:

Eugene Schueller, our founder, strongly believed that advancing science and technology was the key to raising the quality of life around the world. So we’re glad to have run the ‘For Women in Science’ programme for 13 consecutive years in Thailand and to have been part of the inspiration and support that Thai female researchers deserve to produce meaningful research.

UNESCO Bangkok suggested the same in a press release from December 2015:

With discoveries ranging from potentially life-saving research to innovations that advance sustainable development, the six female researchers recognized by L’Oreal Thailand’s “For Women in Science 2015” programme are trailblazers in their fields as well as in the wider realm of science where women are too often underrepresented. The six researchers received grants as part of the awards, which were presented last month and are supported by the Thai National Commission for UNESCO. Two researchers were recognized in each of the awards’ three categories: life science, material science and chemistry. As the recent UNESCO Bangkok study, “A Complex Formula: Girls and Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics”, pointed out, women are vastly underrepresented in [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] fields.

While this UNESCO study suggests that a lack of good role models for girls may be one reason for the relatively few women who choose careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Even so, the good news is that a recent study shows that in mathematics,

girls outscored boys by 8 points in Malaysia and by 14 points in Thailand – two countries which perform below the OECD average (OECD, 2014).

Clearly Thai young woman are talented and high achievers in science and mathematics, but some may be too modest. The report observes:

Even among delegations from countries where learning achievement in mathematics and science is largely in favour of female students, this was not reflected. In delegations from Malaysia and Thailand for instance, there were no female contestants in the International Olympiads in informatics or physics.

The suggestion is that since Thai women excel in science and math, they should be more present at high-profile international competitions in these areas. Even though Thailand has gender parity in terms of employment in the sciences, and statistics proving that Thai girls score higher in math and science than Thai boys, at overseas tournaments, they are not as visible as they could be:

Nonetheless, in countries with a substantial gender difference in achievement in favour of female students, such as Malaysia and Thailand, data indicates that this does not necessarily correlate with the number of female contestants in these country delegations. For instance, in the Informatics and Physics 2014 Olympiads, both country delegations consisted of four male contestants. Of these two countries, only Thailand participated in the areas of biology and mathematics in 2014. For Thailand, there was just one female of a total delegation of four for biology, and in mathematics all six contestants were male.

Thai female students should be encouraged to remember the example of Marie Curie and proudly demonstrate their excellence in science and math when the opportunity arises. A happy exception to countries where gender inequality is still a serious problem, Thailand could still do a better job of promoting its own excellence in the sciences and mathematics.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)