
Hanoi (VNA) - Singaporean-basedAsian Scientist Magazine has named two Vietnamese – Professor Phan Thanh SonNam and Associate Professor Nguyen Sum – in its recently published list of 100leading scientists in Asia.
Professor Phan Thanh Son Nam, Dean of theFaculty of Chemical Engineering at the Ho Chi Minh City University ofTechnology (National University – HCM City), was one of two scientists awardedthe 2017 Ta Quang Buu Awards for his work on molecular catalysts in organictransformation.
Born in 1977, Nam completed his doctoraldegree for Chemical and Biological Engineering at the UK-based University ofSheffield and post-doctoral degree at the US-based Georgia Institute ofTechnology. He obtained the professor level in 2014, at 36, becoming theyoungest professor in Vietnam at the time.
Associate Professor Nguyen Sum at the QuyNhon University was the other laureate of the 2017 Ta Quang Buu Awards for hisresearch on the Peterson hit problem, an open problem in polynomial algebra. Theresearch was internationally published in 2015.
Born in 1961, Sum has taken part in 11scientific studies and published 15 articles on international magazines.
The Ta Quang Buu Awards is the mostprestigious scientific award in Vietnam to honour scientists in the science-technologyfield.
The 2018 edition of the annual AsianScientist 100 celebrated top researchers, academics and innovators, who madesignificant contributions to fields ranging from space exploration tostructural biology. Each of the 100 honourees on the list won a national orinternational prize in 2017 for their scientific research or leadership.
In 2016, the first year the list waspublished, two female Vietnamese were honoured, namely Tran Lien Ha Phuong ofthe International University (National University – HCM City), and Dang ThiOanh of Thai Nguyen University. The 2017 list featured another femaleVietnamese scientist Le Thi Kim Phung from the Ho Chi Minh City University ofTechnology.-VNA