VALDOSTA — A Valdosta High School and MIT graduate was one of five women scientists in the nation to land a L’Oréal USA Fellowship for Women in Science worth $60,000.

The grant will allow eminent postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Tiffany Santos, to continue her research “investigating a class of materials called transition metal oxides. Aiming to uncover new materials, this research could potentially help reduce power consumption and increase the energy efficiency of information technologies, such as data storage devices and memory chips.”

“It’s has been quite an honor,” said Santos in a recent telephone interview from Illinois, where she lives. “It means my research is being recognized by L’Oréal and the AAAS (American Association of the Advancement of Science).”

Santos is a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory, located 25 miles southwest of Chicago, on 1,500 wooded acres surrounded by the Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve. Argonne is one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s oldest and largest national laboratories for science and engineering research, according to its Web site.

Santos is a product of the Valdosta City Schools System who went straight to the top engineering school in the nation, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in Boston, at age 18, after graduating from VHS.

“I was really worried if my school prepared me for that level of education (competing with students from private schools),” she admitted.

But her fears were unfounded.

“There were a few times I made the highest scores in my classes at MIT. I realized that VHS had prepared me for that level of education.”

Santos earned her Bachelor of Science in 2002 and a Doctorate in 2007, both in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT.

Dr. Ted Santos, retired medical physician and chief of pathology at South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta, was understandably proud of his daughter.

“Tiff has always been a smart girl,” he said in a telephone interview from his home in Valdosta. “At 4 years old, she was ready to read.”

The younger Santos was salutatorian of Valdosta High, where she won many academic honors.

“She never got below a 98,” her father said. “She almost never asked for help (with her school work).”

While still in high school, Tiffany and her father went to Boston on vacation and toured the MIT campus.

Her father remembers her saying, “Dad, I’m going to be here someday.”

“Whatever she put her mind to do, she does it and does it well,” her father said.

After defending her thesis at MIT, she was offered a teaching job there, but turned it down.

“She wanted to go somewhere else and explore,” he said.

Tiffany has also turned down a position as a department head at Argonne National Laboratory because “Chicago is too cold,” although she does want to stay in the West, he said.

The honored Valdosta native had no women role models encouraging her interest in science, but she wants to be an example for girls to encourage that interest.

“All my science teachers were men in middle and high school,” she said. “(On the encouraging front) all my math teachers were women. That played (a role) in developing my problem-solving skills.”

With her L’Oréal USA Fellowship grant, she’ll also get to be a mentor for an undergraduate student through the course of a short-term research project.

She’s also had other opportunities to prompt girls down the path of a career in science and engineering.

In the “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day,” Santos mentored female middle school students and helped them build a balloon-powered car at her Argonne National Laboratory. She also participated in the “Science Careers in Search of Women” conference and spoke on a panel to 100 high school girls about choosing a career in chemistry and physics.

Santos, who has presented her research at conferences, both domestic and international, and had her work published in several peer-reviewed journals, including “Physical Review Letters,” has another goal in mind.

“I want to change the common misconception across society that women must choose between a challenging career and a home or personal life.”

Santos is in a relationship and making plans to get married and wants eventually to have a family.

“I haven’t come across a lot of female scientists who have done this,” she said.