Zafra M. Lerman  Zafra M. Lerman is an American chemist, educator, and humanitarian. She is the President of the Malta Conferences Foundation, which aims to promote peace by bringing together scientists from otherwise hostile countries to discuss science and foster international scientific and technical collaboration. From 1986 to 2010, she chaired the American Chemical Society's Subcommittee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights. She has been successful in preventing executions, releasing prisoners of conscience from jail and bringing dissidents to freedom. She is the recipient of many awards for education and science diplomacy, including the 1999 Presidential Award from U.S. President Clinton, the 2005 Nyholm Prize for Education from the Royal Society of Chemistry (England), the 2015 Science Diplomacy Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the 2016 Andrei Sakharov Award for human rights from the American Physical Society (APS). Lerman received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. She conducted research on isotope effects at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Cornell University and Northwestern University in the US, and the ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Lerman used the arts to help teach science at all levels. In 1977, she became the first science faculty member at Columbia College Chicago, an institution of higher education specializing in arts and media disciplines. In 1981, she founded the Department of Science and Mathematics there and served as department Chair through 1991. In 1991, she founded the Institute for Science Education and Science Communication (also known as the 'Science Institute") at Columbia College and served as its head until 2009. Since 1991 she was a Distinguished Professor of Science and Public Policy. To promote integrated teaching of science with creative arts, she founded MIMSAD, Inc. (Methods Integrating Music, Science, Art and Dance) in 1995. Part of her teaching philosophy is captured in this quote, from a 2011 lecture entitled "Creativity in 3D: "Drawing, Dance, and Drama": ""Students remember and understand abstract concepts best by producing their own artistic projects and using their own (sometimes hidden) creativity. Through this process, students are active learners, and utilize both their left and right brain, instead of being just passive observers."" On March 18, 2015, Dr. Lerman was awarded the title of "Distinguished Professor Emerita" by Columbia College Chicago. In addition to developing innovative methods of teaching science through the arts, Lerman started using science to promote peace and human rights around the globe.