Friday, Oct. 10, 2008

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard

"Back then, I did nothing particular with that money," says molecular biologist Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, who pioneered fruit-fly genetics and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995. Nine years later, she contributed a substantial amount of her prize money to the eponymous charity she established to help boost the disproportionately low number of women working in science in Germany. The Christiane Nusslein-Volhard Foundation takes a practical point of view, helping young female scientists with children by funding household duties like childcare or the purchase of a washing machine, and freeing women to pursue their scientific careers. — R.F.