Three highlights of the 2016 Ta Quang Buu Prize

In the series of activities to celebrate the annual Vietnam Science and Technology Day, the 2016 Ta Quang Buu Prize Ceremony was held on May 18th with the attending of Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh, Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha, many scientific managers and scientists. This year, the Ta Quang Buu Main prize was awarded to Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Hieu (Hanoi University of Science and Technology), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Minh (Hanoi University of Science, Vietnam National University). And the Young Scientist Prize was presented to Dr. Phung Van Dong (Institute of Physics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology).

Tia Sang quoted the speech of Prof. Dr. Dinh Dung (Institute of Information Technology, Vietnam National University), Vice Chairman of the Ta Quang Buu Prize Committee and the speech of Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Hieu at the Prize ceremony.

Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh presented the Ta Quang Buu Prize to two scientists who won the main prizes Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Hieu (right) and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Minh (left).

The first highlight of the 2016 Ta Quang Buu prize is that this year both of the main awards are from young scientists. That was different from previous years. This once again confirms that the opportunity to receive the prize is the same for the “senior” scientists who have a long experience in scientific research as well as young scientists.

The second highlight is the scientific works done by the prize – winning principal authors were all funded within the framework of basic research projects that carried out in the country. Especially the scientific works of Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Hieu and Dr. Phung Van Dong that have co-authors are completely Vietnamese colleagues and completely done in Vietnam, without any foreign elements. In addition, these two works were cited many times since their publication: the scientific work of Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Hieu (2012) was cited 69 times and Dr. Phung Van Dong (2013) was cited 19 times (excluding self quotes). This proves that these scientific works are very interesting for international colleagues and have a great influence on works in the same field of research.

The third highlight is the scientific works of the two Main Prizes, both in the field of empirical science, with great practical implications and applicability. The scientific work of Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Hieu in the field of Materials Science (Physics) offers a new method of manufacturing secondary nano that can be expanded to be applied not only in nano-sensitive gas sensors, but also in many other fields such as nano electronic components, energy batteries. The scientific work of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Minh is in the field of Earth and Soil Science, studying the phytolith structure formed during the precipitation of silic in rice stalks, thereby proposing a straws treatment process to avoid environmental pollution and increase fertility for arable land, which can be applied on a large scale of the rice – growing plains.

In addition, the scientific work of Young Scientist Prize winner Dr. Phung Van Dong in the field of astronomy and high energy physics has got the high theoretical significance, contributing to the interpretation of the material and energy structure of the Universe, which developed and calibrated the existing 3-3-1 model of dark matter in the universe into a 3-3-1-1 model through the use of symmetrical properties.

The evaluation and selection process for the Prize is rigorous, scientific, public and transparent. With a Prize committee mainly composed of typical scientists, representing the field of science related to the Prize and a number of prestigious international scientists, the scientific works were evaluated by the reputation of the specialized scientific journal where the scientific works has been published; and the outstanding scientific content of the work based on the opinions of the peer reviewers and the scientific specilized commmittees of National Foundation for Science and Technology Development. Each application was submitted for evaluation by two leading scientists in the country and two prestigious international scientists in the world. And finally, the prize – winning scientific works were in the top of hundreds of prestigious ISI journals in each specialty and each work has result at international level.

As an empirical researcher in the field of physical science and materials