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Posted by Beate List, University Programme, Zurich

A few months ago we had the great pleasure of announcing the fifth class of Anita Borg Scholars in the U.S. and our first class of Scholars in Canada. Now it's the Europeans' turn.

This scholarship program, originally established in the U.S. to honor the work of Anita Borg and to recognize outstanding young women scholars in computer science and related fields, expanded to Europe most recently. Nearly 300 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 31 countries applied for the award. Sixty-three finalists were selected; 20 women received a €5,000 scholarship for the 2008-2009 academic year. The remaining 43 finalists received a €1,000 award.

Each of the finalists visited our Engineering Centre in Zurich for our annual Scholars' Retreat, which included tech talks, career panels and social fun. All of it was a way for the young women to share experiences and come together as leaders in the computer science field.

Visit the Google Europe Anita Borg Scholarship page for more on the program. Hearty congratulations to these winners!

The 2008 Europe Anita Borg Scholars

• Cynthia Liem, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
• Despina Michael - University of Cyprus, Cyprus
  
• Dina Petri - University of Reading, UK; Aristotle University, Greece; Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
• Inbal Talgam -Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
• Katy Howland - University of Sussex, UK
• Kerstin Wendt - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
• Ksenia Rogova - Petrozavodsk State University, Russia
• Mirela Ben-Chen - Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
• Nadezhda Baldina - Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology, Russia
• Olga Boronenko - University of Reading, UK; Aristotle University, Greece; Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
• Patricia Moore - Dublin City University, Ireland
  
• Rebecca Stewart - Queen Mary, University of London, UK
• Sara Elisabeth Adams - University of Oxford, UK
• Seda Gürses - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
• Silvia Breu - University of Cambridge, UK
• Siska Fitrianie - Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
• Stefanie Jegelka - Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany
• Svetlana Obraztsova - Steklov Institute of Mathematics, Russia
• Sylvia Rueda - University of Nottingham, UK
• Ulyana Tikhonova - Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University, Russia

Update: Added photo.