LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) – British coronavirus vaccine developer Sarah Gilbert has many science accolades to her credit score however now shares an honor with Beyonce, Marilyn Monroe and Eleanor Roosevelt: a Barbie doll in her likeness.
Gilbert, a 59-year-old professor at Oxford College and co-developer of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, is one in all six ladies within the COVID-19 struggle who’ve new Barbies modeled after them.
Toy maker Mattel Inc is recognizing them with a line of Barbie “position mannequin” dolls.
Gilbert’s Barbie shares her lengthy auburn hair and outsized black glasses, and she or he wears a wise navy blue pantsuit and white shirt.
“It is a very unusual idea having a Barbie doll created in my likeness,” Gilbert mentioned in an interview for Mattel.
An undated handout picture of a Barbie doll made within the likeness of Sarah Gilbert (3d R), the Oxford College professor who co-designed the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, amongst a world lineup of girls of healthcare sector honoured with a one-of-a-kind doll. College of Oxford/by way of REUTERS
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“I hope it is going to be a part of making it extra regular for women to consider careers in science.”
Among the many honorees are emergency room nurse Amy O’Sullivan who handled the primary COVID-19 affected person on the Wycoff Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, and Audrey Cruz, frontline physician in Las Vegas who fought discrimination, in line with Mattel.
Different dolls embody Chika Stacy Oriuwa, a Canadian psychiatry resident on the College of Toronto who battled systemic racism in healthcare, and Brazilian biomedical researcher Jaqueline Goes de Jesus, who led sequencing of the genome of a COVID-19 variant in Brazil, the corporate mentioned.
Lastly a doll honors Kirby White, an Australian physician who pioneered a surgical robe that may be washed and reused by frontline employees throughout the pandemic.
Gilbert selected nonprofit group WISE (Ladies in Science & Engineering), devoted to inspiring women to contemplate a profession in STEM, to obtain a monetary donation from the toy maker.
Reporting by Lisa Giles-Keddie; Enhancing by Cynthia Osterman
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