The National Institute of Nutrition’s female staff and the environmentalist, Nguyen Thi Kim Chi, from the Hanoil University of Technology have won 2009’s Kovalevskaya Award, which is considered to be the highest honour for   Vietnam  ’s female scientists. 
       
  The award was announced just several days before International Women’s Day (March 8) in recognition of the female nutritionists’ effective contributions to public healthcare, and the female professor’s environmental protection work in heavily-polluted rural traditional craft villages. 
      
  The institute’s 140-strong female staff includes four associate professors, 15 doctors of science and 31 masters of science. 
      
  They have played a key role in the 28-year history of the national nutrition care centre through implementing 12 scientific research projects, in cooperation with their colleagues from Japan, the US, France, Holland and Sweden. They have offered a number of solutions designed to improve the nation’s nutritional situation and food hygiene and safety standards. 
      
  The findings of their first scientific research project, an assessment of nutritional threats to the health of the community, have since been adopted and applied in reality, through the national nutrition strategy, the child malnutrition programme and a programme for food hygiene and safety. 
      
  The institute’s rector, Nguyen Thi Hop, said that her agency is currently conducting a State scientific research project to study lipid disorders in adults. 
      
  The project aims to prevent chronic yet non-contagious diseases such as diabetes, emphasising the important role good nutrition plays in preventing the disease. 
      
  The institute’s female staff installed a food hygiene and safety laboratory, meeting ISO-17025 standards in 2005, becoming the first of its kind at the Ministry of Health that meets international requirements. 
      
  Prof. Dang Thi Kim Chi, who scooped the honours in the individual category, is the former Deputy Director of the  Institute  of  Environmental Science  and Technology under the Hanoi University of Technology and is recognised as a pioneering female who played a core role in the establishment and development of   Vietnam  ’s environmental science and technology industry. 
      
  She is the only Vietnamese woman ever to be awarded the “Vietnam Environment Prize”. 
      
  Chi has devoted her career to the inspection of heavily polluted traditional craft villages in the countryside, which led her to conduct a scientific study to identify policies and measures that address the environmental pollution in these areas. 
      
  Her projects have become blueprints for the environmental improvement of villages engaged in the four most popular crafts in   Vietnam  ; paper recycling, wood processing, fine art manufacturing and food processing. This research has been invaluable in reducing and treating industrial waste and, thus contributing to improving environmental protection and the health of local residents. 
      
  She has published more than 60 scientific research projects in domestic and foreign scientific journals. She is also the author of a book “ Vietnamese   Traditional   Craft   Villages  and the Environment” and has collaborated with others in writing environmental tomes such as “  Vietnam   - Environment and Life” and “Curriculum of Economy and Waste”. 
      
  Chi said she has plans for a whole host of projects aimed at helping rural craft villages to protect the environment, while preserving their traditional cultural dignity and heritage.--Enditem