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Lihadh Al-Ghazali is a leading Iraqi geneticist and professor of Clinical Genetics and Pediatrics at the United Arab Emirates (UAE) University. Her work has uncovered genetic disorders unknown to the medical field, including several disorders unique to the Persian Gulf nation. In 2009, she ranked 45^th on the Power 100 list of The World's Most Influential Arabs.

Early Life

Lihadh Al-Ghazali was born and raised in Iraq. Her father was an Army judge and her mother was an "educationalist" who stressed the importance of learning to her children. As a result, Al-Ghazali and her siblings were top students in their class. Lihadh and her brother went on to become doctors, while her sister chose another technical route. "Back in our day, if you were clever and intelligent, all that you hoped to be was a doctor or an engineer, which is what my other sister became eventually," she said.

Getting Started

Al-Ghazali left Iraq with her husband and child in 1976 to complete her studies in London. She credits life in Iraq as influencing her career choices. "I came from Baghdad, Iraq. When I was there, I noticed the children seem to have illnesses that no one can detect, so I became interested in genetic technology and studied it in England." Al-Ghazali lived in the UK for 14 years while training in pediatrics and specializing in clinical genetics.

Al-Ghazali went to the UAE in 1990 after signing a four-year contract with the Department of Pediatrics. At that point, the UAE was still in the early stages of development, so patient services lagged behind. There was also little awareness about genetic disorders either, which meant that Al-Ghazali had to start from scratch. After numerous lectures, seminars and television appearances, Al-Ghazali helped people develop a better understanding of inherited genetic disorders.

Achievements

Throughout her career, Lihadh Al-Ghazali has pioneered genetic research in the UAE. She has defined several new symptoms of inherited disorders, and contributed to the molecular characterization of many new disorders and syndromes that affect people of the Persian Gulf nation. In 1994, she discovered a new genomic syndrome that has since been named in her honor – Al-Ghazali syndrome.

With an international research team, Al-Ghazali helped identify fifteen recessive genes and mapped seven genes. She was also a key player in establishing a registry for monitoring birth defects in the UAE. This became the first registry from an Arab country to gain membership into the International Clearinghouse of Birth Defects in Rome.

Lihadh Al-Ghazali also established a Clinical Genetics Services, which is supported by cytogenetic and DBA laboratories and offers counseling, education, and support for families affected by genetics diseases. Additionally, she also took part in founding the Centre for Arab Genomic Studies in Duabi, along with other genetic institutions.

Awards

In 2003, Lihadh Al-Ghazali received the Distinguished Performance Award in Research and Clinical Services from UAE University. Three years later, she was profiled and praised in the UK Medical Journal, The Lancet, for her contributions to Clinical Genetics and Research in the Middle East.

In 2008, she was honored with an L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science in the African-Arab States for the "characterization of new hereditary diseases." The annual award is given to women who've helped advance science in some way. Each year, five laureates are named from Asia-Pacific, Africa-Arab, Europe, Latin America, and North America. When Al-Ghazali received the award, it marked the first time a geneticist from the UAE was honored.

Future Plans

Professor Lihadh Al-Ghazali hopes to continue to make strides in the field of genetics for a long time. In an interview, she shared her hopes for genetics research in the UAE. "According to a survey by March of Dimes statistics, the UAE ranks sixth out of 193 countries in the prevalence of birth defects – mainly due to genetic causes. Before I retire, I hope to see a full-fledged centre here dedicated to all areas related to genetics – education, research and patient service. After that, I want to go back to my hometown in Iraq to help children of my beautiful, strife-torn country," she said.

Resources:

http://www.islamonline.net/English/In_Depth/IOLMuslimStars/topic_08/03.shtml

http://gulfnews.com/life-style/people/lihadh-al-ghazali-on-genetics-1.25648

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/power100/profile/1052

Astronomy is changing, and quickly. What used to be a quest to see farther is transforming into a race to see smaller and in more detail. If the 20th century was defined by the realization that the Universe consists of hundreds of billions of galaxies, being swept away from each other by the Hubble Flow, then the 21st century will surely be defined by an accumulation of details slowly turning our faceless "stars" and "binaries" of today into teeming systems of comets, gas giants, earth like planets, moons, asteroids, and even.....gulp...life.

Exoplanets in the News

Just in case you don't know, an Exoplanet is a planet outside of our solar system. Recently it was reported that a rocky and water-rich planet, not much larger then our own, was discovered in a star system 40 light years away. The planet is intriguing because there is speculation that there may be liquid water on the planet due to the pressure of it's thick atmosphere. As with all scientific stories, the media sought out an expert in the field of exoplanets for a quote on the discovery. Professor Sara Seager explained "It really depends on how hot the planet is on the inside, and we don't know that. I think this planet doesn't have liquid water because it is too hot on the inside. I think it goes from water ice, to a very exotic kind of water — a superfluid — and then it goes to vapor."

It was a good idea to ask Professor Sara Seager, if anyone should be asked about exoplanets, it's her.

Professor Sara Seager

Professor Sara Seager is the Ellen Swallow Richards Associate Professor of Planetary Science and Associate Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For the past decade Professor Seager has been investigating exoplanets. Profressor Seager, orginally from Canada, became a permanent resident of the US in 2002. Professor Seager received her Ph.D. from Harvard University, her thesis was entitled "Extrasolar Planets Under Strong Stellar Irradiation".

Professor Seager has been involved with NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder mission and the New Worlds Imager. She is also a Deputy Mission Scientist for TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). An upcoming book entitled "Exoplanet Atmospheres: Physical Processes" is coming out in 2010. Professor Seager has over 50 publications on Exoplanets the past 10 years. Basically, if you're writing a scientific article on Exoplanets, Professor Seager is a good person to call for an expert's take.

Professor Seager has an excellent website found here. I strongly recommend that if you have an interest in exoplanets that you go visit it. Here is the introduction to the research section of her website:

"Over 350 planets are known to orbit nearby, sun-like stars. These planets are called "exoplanets". Professor Seager's favorite exoplanet diagram is the mass-period diagram shown to the left. This diagram (updated monthly) shows that exoplanets have all masses and semi-major axes possible, showcasing the random nature of planet formation and migration. The different planet detection techniques are shown in the diagram. Parts of the diagram with no planets are where technology can not yet reach exoplanets."

Exoplanets, Spectroscopy, and Paradigm Shifts

For a while there, the term Paradigm shift was hijacked by talking heads to exaggerate the significance of a new cup holder or paint color. It seems like that trend has died off, so I can use it for what it was intended. A paradigm shift is essentially a scientific revolution, like relativity, or quantum mechanics. Something which causes a seismic shift in our understanding of the universe. Today the stage is being set for the discovery on life on planets outside our solar system through spectroscopy and I don't think there is any doubt that such a discovery / paradigm shift will have giant ramifications.

Recently an important step towards such a discovery has been made with the first direct measurement of the atmospheric spectrum of a planet outside our solar system. Using the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, scientists studied a planet about 130 light-years from Earth about 10 times more massive than Jupiter

In the future, when life is discovered in another star system, there can be little doubt that Professor Seager will have played a significant role in the development of the methods that made it possible.

The purpose of the WOW blog is to acknowledge the contributions of Women Engineers and Scientists, so naturally Professor Seager was an obvious choice. Still, this blog entry goes a little beyond simply relating to you how accomplished she is, I think the work she is doing is very important, and she is very good at it. If you have an interest in science, especially science that can potentially change how everyone thinks about the universe, then I think Professor Sara Seager's website should be added to your bookmarks.

Jacqueline Cochran was a pioneering American aviator. The first woman to break the sound barrier (1953), she was considered to be one of the most gifted racing pilots of her time. Jackie Cochran was also an important contributor to the formation of the wartime Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).

Early Life

Jacqueline Cochran was raised in Pensacola, Florida. Early accounts of her life, as well as her exact birth date, are unconfirmed. Some sources say she was adopted and raised in poverty, but others dispute those claims.

At an early age, Jackie Cochran began working as a beautician with aspirations of one day starting her own line of cosmetics. In 1929, she moved to New York City to pursue that dream. Cochran found work at upscale department store, Saks Fifth Avenue, where she earned a raving reputation and was often invited to travel with her clients. While traveling in Miami in 1932, she met millionaire Floyd Bostwick Odlum, whom she would eventually marry in 1936.

Introduction to Flying

Odlum introduced Cochran to flying after suggesting that she'd "need wings" to cover enough territory to have a successful cosmetics business. Cochran took Odlum's advice seriously and obtained her pilot's license after only three weeks of flying instruction. She did keep her cosmetics business, but to Cochran "a beauty operator ceased to exist and an aviator was born."

In 1934, Jacqueline Cochran entered the MacRobertson Race from London to Melbourne – her first major aviation competition. Unfortunately, both Cochran and her co-pilot had to abandon the race due to a problem with the plane's flaps. She entered a Bendix cross-country race in 1935, but again had to forfeit due to mechanical problems.

Record-Setting Aviation

Jackie Cochran really arrived onto the aviation scene in 1937. She competed in the Bendix again, finishing first in the women's division and third overall. That same year, she set a national air speed record from New York to Miami with a time of 4 hours, 12 minutes, and 27 seconds. She also set a new women's national speed record at 203.895 miles per hour. For these accomplishments, Cochran was awarded the Clifford Harmon Trophy for the most outstanding woman pilot of the year.

In 1938, Jacqueline Cochran won the Bendix outright with a Seversky fighter plane and a winning time of 8 hours, 10 minutes, and 31 seconds. For this victory, she was awarded the William Mitchell Memorial Award, an honor given to the person who makes the most outstanding contribution to aviation each year.

In March 1937, Cochran set a new women's national altitude record of 30,052 feet. She also set two new world records for the fastest times over 1000-kilometer and 2000-kilometer courses.

War Efforts

When World War II broke out, Cochran went to England to understand how female pilots were helping the British war effort. She envisioned a fleet of women pilots who could fly military aircraft to support operations, thus freeing up male pilots to fight in the war. After seeing women successfully taking on routine military flight in England, Cochran returned to the U.S. to lobby the American government to follow suit.

In 1942, Army Air Force General Henry Arnold asked Cochran to organize the Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) to train women pilots on basic military flight support. The next year, she was appointed to lead the Women's Air Force Service Pilots, or WASPs. The WASPs organization consisted of two groups, the WFTD and the Women's Auxiliary Ferry Squadron (WAFS), which delivered military planes to their bases of operation.

Under Cochran's leadership, the WASPs grew to over 1000 members and were invaluable for transporting planes, testing aircraft, and providing target towing. Unfortunately, the organization was disbanded in 1944 after a number of male pilots complained about being out of work. For her work with the WASPs, Cochran became the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Service Metal.

Continued Record-Setting

After the war, Cochran returned to racing and record-setting. In 1950, she set a new international speed record for propeller-driven aircraft in a P-51 at 447.47 mph. In 1953, she became the first woman to break the sound barrier while flying a Sabrejet F-86.

In the 1960s, Jacqueline Cochran worked as a test pilot for Northrop and Lockheed as she continued making her mark in aviation history. In 1961, she established eight major speed records in a Northrup T-38. Three years later, she added three more speed records to her name, flying a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. During one of those runs, she flew over 1,429 mph - the fastest a woman aviator had ever flown.

Jackie Cochran began to slow down in the 1970s after suffering from a serious cardiac condition. After years of complications, she died in 1980 in Indio, California.

Awards

Throughout her life, Jacqueline Cochran received over 200 awards and trophies and set more speed and altitude records than any other aviator. In addition to her awards in the United States, Cochran also received numerous foreign honors, including the French Legion of Honor and a gold medal from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.

In addition to all of her aeronautical achievements, in the 1950s the Associated Press named her "Woman of the Year in Business" two years in a row for her cosmetics business, Wings.

From the 1930s onward, Cochran's achievements influenced the world well beyond aviation.

Resources

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/cochran/EX25.htm

http://waspmuseum.org/jackie-cochran-biography/

http://www.essortment.com/all/biographyjaquel_rgtp.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Cochran

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/women_aviators/jackie_cochran.htm

On October 21st the WoW Blog posted an article detailing the five women that were awarded Nobel Prizes this year.

The New York Times reports that two of those winners, Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider are urging scientific institutions to change their career structures to help more women reach top positions. The two laureates spoke to reporters ahead of next week's Nobel Prize ceremony, saying:

"The career structure is very much a career structure that has worked for men"..."But many women, at the stage when they have done their training really want to think about family...and they just are very daunted by the career structure. Not by the science, in which they are doing really well."

The concern is that the current system is at it's most inflexible during prime childbearing years for women. This is the time after receiving a Doctorate when scientists are vying for coveted Post-Doctoral positions and work long hours for little pay in an effort to establish themselves in their field. Too often women scientists find themselves choosing between children and their research at this point in their career, which sets them at a severe disadvantage to their male counterparts.

Unfortunately this has led to a disparity in the number of women and men professors in higher positions. Also this has reinforced unfortunate stereotypes that should be long dead by now, as illustrated by Harvard's president Lawrence H. Summers:

"The president of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, sparked an uproar at an academic conference Friday when he said that innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers. Summers also questioned how much of a role discrimination plays in the dearth of female professors in science and engineering at elite universities."

Summers mistake was examining only personal discrimination, it didn't occur to him that there is systemic discrimination. Summers drew what he felt was a logical conclusion based on the facts he was aware of. A clear sign awareness needs to be raised.

Until the system is adjusted to be more accommodating to women, such misconceptions will persist. We should all be thankful that esteemed scientists such as Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider aren't afraid to speak out to elucidate these systemic barriers to women.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the wife of aviator Charles Lindbergh, of transatlantic flight fame, was a pioneering American aviator, author and poet. Anne was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame as well as the National Women's Hall of Fame.

The Ambassador's Daughter

Anne Morrow was born on June 22, 1906 in Englewood, New Jersey to Dwight Morrow and Elizabeth Cutter Morrow. At the time Dwight was a lawyer who would soon become a partner at J.P Morgan & Co. Anne's mother Elizabeth was a poet and a women's education advocate. Everyday at 5:00pm she would stop whatever she was doing and read to her children. As the children grew older, they themselves set aside this time for reading and writing, which is the origins of Anne Morrow's eventual authorship. The Morrows spent summers at Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod and later Maine.

Anne graduated from The Chapin School in New York City in 1924 and next attended Smith College in Northampton Massachusetts. In 1928 Anne received a Bachelor of Arts, winning the Elizabeth Montagu Prize for her essay on women of the eighteenth century and Madame d'Houdetot. Dwight Morrow at this time was Charles Lindbergh's financial adviser at J.P. Morgan & Co. and invited Charles to Mexico where Morrow was soon to be the American ambassador. In Mexico Charles met, and fell in love with, Anne and they were married in a small ceremony in 1929.

Learning To Fly

When Charles met Anne, he was one of the biggest celebrities in the world, having successfully completed a famous transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927. Charles was passionate about aviation, and the refined Anne was eager for adventure, so it was inevitable that Charles took her flying during their courtship. By the time they were married, Anne had flown solo and was on her way to becoming an aviator. In 1930 she became the first woman to earn a first class glider pilot's license.

During the 30s the Lindbergh worked to promote the rapid development of commercial aviation. Anne and Charles as copilots made historical flights across the world. In 1931 they traveled in a single-engine plane over Canada and Alaska and on to Japan and China. The flight was the inspiration for Anne's first book "North to the Orient". Over the next 4 years the Lindberghs would log over 40,000 miles of exploratory flying over 5 continents. Anne received both the National Geographic Society Hubbard Gold Metal and the Cross of Honor of the U.S. Flag Association along with her husband for these explorations.

The Lindbergh Kidnapping

Anne and Charles would have 6 children together, the first of whom was named Charles A. Lindbergh, III. In 1932, the almost two year old baby Charles was kidnapped from his home on the evening of March 1, 1932. Dubbed "The Crime of the Century" by the press at the time, the baby's remains were found about 2 miles away from the Lindbergh's home two months later, in the woods near a road just north of the small village of Mount Rose, NJ. After a year the police were able to apprehend a German Carpenter named Bruno Richard Hauptmann whom they charged with kidnapping and murder. In March 1935 Hauptmann was convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed in 1936, insisting he was innocent despite an offer by the New Jersey Governor to change his sentence to life in jail if he admitted to the crime.

The Lindbergs were understandably devastated by the ordeal and decided to move to England to get away from the spotlight. They stayed in Sevenoaks Weald, Kent, England for three years and then moved to Ile Illiec, a small island Lindbergh purchased off the Breton coast of France.

Later Life

The Lindberghs were never quite the same after the ordeal of the kidnapping and murder of their child along with the subsequent trial. They sought privacy as much as possible. Charles Lindbergh, when he beheld the might of the German airforce, became convinced it would be folly for the US to engage them in a war in Europe. He and Anne became outspoken pacifists, going so far as to write (in one of Anne's books) that Facism was the unfortunate inevitable future.

For these beliefs the Lindberghs fell out of favor with the American public. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Charles Lindbergh dropped his antiwar arguments and took part in bomber raids on Japanese positions (about 50 combat missions) as a civilian. After the war, when touring Nazi Concentration Camps, Charles wrote that he was disgusted and angered. Anne published a book called "Gift from the Sea" in 1955 which was an introspective book regarding finding inner peace. Gift from the Sea became a national best seller and this coupled with Chares' actions in the war and afterwards led to the American public embracing the heroic Limbergh family again.

Over the course of their 45 year marriage, Charles and Anne lived in New Jersey, New York, England, France, Maine, Michigan, Connecticut, Switzerland and Hawaii. Charles died in 1974. Anne would continue on, reaching 94 in 2001 before she died of pneumonia.

A Pioneering Legacy

Later in life, Anne admitted that she regretted her 1940 book "The Wave of the Future" that suggested Fascism was regrettably inevitable. The public ordeal and tragedy of the kidnapping and murder of her first child was unfortunate. Still, in the final account of her life, it was her heroic and inspired pioneering efforts in avionics that defined Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

http://www.annemorrowlindbergh.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Morrow_Lindbergh
http://www.charleslindbergh.com/anne/index.asp
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lindbergh/sfeature/anne.html