Vietnamese Professor Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh has won the Interdisciplinary Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), United Kingdom, in recognition of her significant contributions to fundamental research on chemical synthesis and the physical characterization of plasmonic and magnetic nanomaterials for biomedical applications.
Founder of the Vietnam Young Academy
Professor Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh is an alumna of Cohort 32 of the Faculty of Chemistry at Hanoi General University (now the University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi). In 1992, she went abroad for further study and began a distinguished international research career in the Netherlands, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Since 2013, she has held the position of Professor at University College London (UCL), where she leads a research group conducting advanced interdisciplinary research on the design and synthesis of nanomaterials for biomedical applications.
She is also the first Vietnamese professor at University College London (UCL), specializing in nanomaterials at the UCL Nanomaterials Laboratory based at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. In addition, she serves as a Professor in the Biophysics Group within the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCL, United Kingdom.
She is also a Fellow of four prestigious scientific institutions in the United Kingdom: the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
In 2008, while serving as a Royal Society University Research Fellow funded by The Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences, Professor Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh was selected to attend a meeting of leading young scientists and researchers from around the world at the World Economic Forum (the Summer Davos Meeting) in Tianjin, China, organized by the InterAcademy Panel (IAP). At this meeting, a group of young scientists expressed their desire to contribute to building a better world and initiated the idea of establishing the Global Young Academy (GYA). The GYA was officially founded in February 2010 with the support of the IAP.
An award honoring those who create “real opportunities to improve lives”
Professor Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh of Vietnam was awarded the Interdisciplinary Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), United Kingdom, in recognition of her significant contributions to fundamental research on chemical synthesis and the physical characterization of plasmonic and magnetic nanomaterials for biomedical applications. She expressed her delight that her research could bring direct benefits in extending the lives of cancer patients.
In her acceptance speech, Professor Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh said: “I am very happy and deeply honoured that my interdisciplinary research works with my collaborators have been recognized; therefore, this award is dedicated to my entire research team and my collaborators.”
Dr Helen Pain, Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), said that Professor Thanh’s research is “a wonderful example of why we celebrate great science, and we are very proud to recognize their contributions today.” She also emphasized that “it is important to celebrate achievements and progress in understanding knowledge as real opportunities to improve our lives.”
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) awards are among the oldest and most prestigious in the world, recognizing the achievements of individuals, groups, and organizations in advancing the field of chemistry. To date, 60 scientists who have been honored by the Royal Society of Chemistry have subsequently gone on to receive the Nobel Prize for their research, including Professors Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Fraser Stoddart, and Ben Feringa, who were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2016, and Professor John B. Goodenough, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019.
In 2019, following her significant research achievements and high-impact projects on the application of nanomaterials in biomedicine and healthcare, Professor Thanh received the 2019 Rosalind Franklin Award, which honors outstanding female scientists worldwide. The award includes a silver medal, a £40,000 research grant, and a £1,000 gift.
At the Royal Society in 2019, Professor Dr. Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh of University College London (UCL) had the honour of delivering a lecture on plasmonic nanomaterials (spherical, rod-shaped, and star-shaped gold nanoparticles), entitled “Nanomaterials from Bench to Bedside”, before leading scientists in the United Kingdom.
Professor Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh is also an active figure in promoting initiatives by the Vietnamese intellectual diaspora, contributing to the development and advancement of Vietnam.
Source: phunumoi.
