Reuters.- Britain’s Sarah Gilbert, creator of the coronavirus vaccine, has many scientific accolades to her credit, but now she shares an honor with Beyoncé, Marilyn Monroe and Eleanor Roosevelt: a Barbie doll in her image and likeness.
Gilbert, 59-year-old Oxford University professor and co-developer of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, is one of the six women who participate in the fight against Covid-19 and who have new Barbies modeled in their image.
Toy maker Mattel Inc recognizes them with a line of “role model” Barbie dolls.
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Gilbert’s Barbie shares her long brown hair and oversized black glasses and wears comfortable and practical navy blue pants and a white blouse.
“It is a very strange concept to have a Barbie doll created in my image and likeness,” Gilbert said in an interview for Mattel.
“I hope it helps make it more normal for girls to think about science careers.”
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Among the honorees are ER nurse Amy O’Sullivan, who treated the first Covid-19 patient at Wycoff Hospital in Brooklyn in New York, and Audrey Cruz, a front-line doctor in Las Vegas who fought discrimination, according to Mattel.
Other dolls are Chika Stacy Oriuwa, a Canadian psychiatry resident at the University of Toronto who fought against systemic racism in healthcare, and the Brazilian biomedical researcher Jaqueline Goes de Jesus, who led the genome sequencing of a Covid-19 variant in Brazil, according to the company.
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Finally, a doll pays tribute to Kirby White, an Australian doctor who pioneered the creation of a surgical gown that can be laundered and reused by frontline workers during the pandemic.
Gilbert selected the nonprofit Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), dedicated to inspiring girls to consider a career in exact sciences, to receive a financial donation from the toy manufacturer. .
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