Winners of the “Vietnamese Talents Award 2010” were honoured at a grand ceremony at the Friendship Palace in Hanoi on Nov. 21.

This year's awards were presented to outstanding Vietnamese scientists in the fields of natural sciences, healthcare and information technology.

Vice State President Nguyen Thi Doan attended the event.

Doctor Bui Chi Buu, Director General of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences for Southern Vietnam (IAS), and Professor, Doctor Dao Tien Khoa, from the Institute of Sciences and Nuclear Technology received the two Vietnamese Talents Awards 2010 in natural sciences.

Bui Chi Buu, director general of the Ho Chi Minh City-based IAS enjoyed a long and distinguished career in rice breeding during which he has emphasised grain-quality improvement, salt tolerance, and resistance to pests and diseases such as blast fungus, bacterial blight, and brown planthopper.

He has won many awards which include the Senadhira Rice Research Award 2008 for his outstanding contributions to the development of many popular rice varieties in Vietnam .

Dao Tien Khoa won the award for his “Complex of Nuclear Reaction Research Projects”. He took the occasion to express his thanks to his teachers, colleagues who have helped him so far: “Following scientific research is really a hard choice but is also the most noble career”, Khoa said.

The Vietnamese Talents Awards 2010 in healthcare was awarded to a group of doctors from the Vietnam Heart Institute, doctors Pham Manh Hung and Nguyen Quang Tuan, for their new method of applying coronary artery catheterization to treat cardiac diseases. Doctors Hung and Tuan were the first to introduce coronary artery catheterization to Vietnam and have successfully cured local patients.

The Vietnamese Talents Awards 2010 in IT field went to MIMAS group with a prize valued at 100 million VND (5,000 USD). They received the prize for a system for digitalising human thought.

The MIMAS Group developed the system as a helpful way to help people who suffer from mental problems and paralysis better connect with electronic devices such as television, lights, etc. The system enables patients to use their thought to operate and control some of the devices on their own.

The “Vietnamese Talents Award 2010” was the sixth so far, which was jointly held by the Vietnam Study Encouragement Association, Dan tri online newspaper and the Vietnam Post and Telecom Group (VNPT)./.