By TAKAHIRO TAKENOUCHI/ Staff Writer
April 13, 2024 at 08:00 JST
Sony Group Corp. headquarters in Tokyo’s Minato Ward (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Sony Group Corp. and Nature magazine have founded an international prize that honors outstanding female researchers who are working in the field of technology.
The “Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature,” announced on March 6, is intended to champion women in tech domains that have more than twice as many male researchers.
“We need more women in active research and engineering,” said Magdalena Skipper, the first female editor-in-chief at Nature, which started more than 150 years ago. “We can provide a global platform to celebrate the work of emerging women researchers and engineers who may otherwise go unheralded.”
The Japanese entertainment and electronics giant and the British science journal said they will announce the first three winners of the award early next year. They will each receive $250,000 (37.5 million yen) in research funds.
The joint announcement said women account for only around 30 percent of all professional researchers and less than 20 percent of those currently in the technology sector.
Sony and Nature said they decided to found the award ahead of the March 8 International Women’s Day to help promote societal diversity and inclusion.
The first three winners will be selected from researchers in the fields of mathematics, science and engineering who obtained their undergraduate degrees less than 25 years ago.
At least one winner will be in the early stages of her career, or less than 15 years since gaining the undergraduate degree, the award operators said.
Applications can be filed on the award’s website (https://womenintechnology.sony.com/) through the end of May.
The winners will also be given an opportunity to showcase their research work and achievements on Nature’s website, the operators added.
Hiroaki Kitano, Sony’s chief technology officer, said: “To achieve ... creativity, diversity of expertise and experiences is essential. We are ... delighted to work with Nature on this important initiative.”
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