The College is pleased to announce that postdoctoral researcher Lilia Xie (Bediako Lab) has been named a 2021 L’Oréal USA For Women in Science fellow. The other scholars named this year are Darcy McRose (CalTech), Julie Butler (Stanford), Brooke Osborne (USGS), and Brooke Russell (LBNL).
Lilia said of her award, "It's a huge honor to receive this recognition, and I'm so grateful to have this support from L'Oreal to delve deeper into my work in the lab. I wouldn't be where I am today without the many incredible women who have been my role models and mentors. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to pay it forward and inspire the next generation of women in science."
Each year, the L’Oréal USA For Women in Science program awards five women postdoctoral scientists for their contributions in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields and commitment to serving as role models for younger generations. Lilia was selected from a highly competitive pool and this achievement is a testament to her academic excellence, research potential, and dedication to supporting the next generation of female scientists as well as the support she is receiving at University of California, Berkeley. Lilia joins a group of 85 preeminent alumni who have become leaders and innovators in their fields over the 17 years of the program.
About Lilia Xie
Lilia Xie comes to UC Berkeley as a postdoctoral researcher from MIT where she was a member of Professor Mircea Dincă’s research lab. Currently, she is working in the lab of Kawbena Bediako researching ways to tailor the magnetic and electronic properties of two-dimensional materials to enable more energy-efficient technologies. She is a recipient of the 2021 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship.
While Lilia was at MIT, she worked on electrically conductive metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) research. Specifically, she synthesized new conductive frameworks and studied how certain structural motifs (such as ligand pi-stacking patterns), as well as defect concentrations and donor-acceptor interactions, dictate their transport properties.
About the L'Oreal USA for Women in Science fellowship program
The For Women in Science program was created out of a simple belief: the world needs science, and science needs women because women in science have the power to change the world.
The program is the U.S. component of the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Fellowships. Celebrating its seventeenth year in the U.S., the For Women in Science program has awarded 85 postdoctoral women scientists over $4 million in grants.
L’Oréal USA partners with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to manage the program’s application and peer-review process. Each year, the program attracts talented applicants from diverse STEM fields, representing some of the nation’s leading academic institutions and laboratories.
