<div style="TEXT-ALIGN:center"><b><font color="#3366ff" size="4">AWIS Chicago </font></b><font style="color:rgb(51,102,255)" size="4"><b>6th Annual Innovator Award and the 1st Annual Motivator Award Winners</b></font><b><font color="#3366ff" size="4"><br>
</font></b><div style="text-align:left"><font><br>Thank you to everyone who participated and nominated a scientist for recognition.</font> After an extensive discussion of all the outstanding applicants for the
Innovator and Motivator awards last Tuesday, we made the difficult
decision of choosing the following awardees for each category:<br>
<br><b>Innovator Awardee: Dr. Susan Cohn,</b> of the University of Chicago, for demonstrating innovative
approaches applied to a clinical setting by investigating genetic
factors and molecular predictors that contribute to neuroblastoma
survival rates in children.<br><br><b>Motivator Awardee: Ami LeFavre</b>, of Niles Township High School, for selflessly going above and
beyond her teaching responsibilities to motivate and encourage young
girls to realize the importance of STEM and to pursue this as a career.
She initiated and continued multiple programs to achieve this such as
the GEMS (Girls Empowered by Math and Science) program, organizing and
distributing opportunities for STEM internships, and providing
opportunities for peer mentoring. <br>
<br>Our awardees will be honored with a dinner in their recognition. We're still determining the date, so please watch this listserve for final details. We are also planning to share the accomplishments of the other nominees with the community through our website, so watch for that too!<br>
</div><b><font color="#3366ff" size="4"><br></font></b><b><font color="#3366ff" size="4">Help support AWIS Chicago Board member Dimitra Georganopoulou as "Prominent Woman in Tech" for 2012</font></b></div>
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<div>Our very own AWIS Chicago Board member Dimitra Georganopoulou has
been named a finalist in the "Prominent Woman in Tech" category of the
Illinois Technology Association's (ITA) CityLIGHTS
awards! Congratulations to Dimitra for being selected as one of the
top nominees selected for this category, from a record-setting number of
nominations for this year's awards. </div>
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<p style="MARGIN:0in 0in 0pt"><span><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Aside
from being an integral part of the AWIS Chicago Board, Dimitra
Georganopoulou is also currently the VP of R&D of Ohmx Corporation
and an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern
University. She has over 14 years of experience in electrochemistry,
nanotechnology and biotechnology. She is the author of numerous patents
and peer-reviewed publications. Dimitra represented Ohmx at numerous
technical and investment conferences over the years, and she recently
won the AACC Lemuel Bowie Young Investigator Award. Dimitra is involved
with several outreach programs and is also on the Board of WIB-Chicago,
the Springboard Life Science Alumnae Committee and until recently, she
served on the AACC-Chicago board.</font></span></p>
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<p style="MARGIN:0in 0in 0pt;BACKGROUND:white"><span><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Dimitra
said, “It’s been an honor to be nominated and a great pleasure to make
it to the finalists. Illinois is home to a plethora of talented
entrepreneurs, engineers, developers, scientists and other professionals
focused on advancing technological and cultural change, and it’s an
exciting time to be a part of this community.”</font></span></p>
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<div><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><b>Please show your support for Dimitra by voting for her using this link: <span> <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CLVOTING" target="_blank"><span><font color="#800080">https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CLVOTING</font></span></a>. <font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">The
"Prominent Woman in Tech" category is the last one in the online ballot
(you can skip categories if only interested in the last Award). Make
sure you vote before the deadline next <span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)">Wednesday, April 25th</span>. Thank you
for your support!</font></span></b></font></div>
<div><br></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Join us on Facebook and LinkedIn: keyword AWIS Chicago<br><a href="http://www.awis-chicago.org/" target="_blank">http://www.awis-chicago.org/</a><br>