The golden balls are sparkling

Two young scientists who have just become Outstanding Young Citizens of Ho Chi Minh City 2023 have received the Golden Globe science and technology award for young talents in the field of science and technology under the age of 35.

Associate Professor Dr. Le Thanh Long (middle) instructs colleagues in his research group - Photo: NVCC

I read the sentence "Our success is not what we own but what we leave behind", found it suitable and considered it as a direction for myself.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. LE THANH LONG

Both Golden Globe winners are lecturers at Ho Chi Minh City National University. Dr. Ha Thi Thanh Huong is head of the Department of Regenerative Medicine and Head of the Brain Health Laboratory (International University), while Associate Professor Dr. Le Thanh Long is currently working at the University of Technology.

Get into science

The dream of becoming a scientist has motivated Ha Thi Thanh Huong since her high school days. That was when Huong learned that people with brain, neurological, and depression-related diseases were very miserable and wished she could find a way to support and take better care of these patients. That desire followed Huong to university, and gradually became a reality when she won a scholarship to study neuroscience at Stanford University (USA) and returned with a doctorate. In 2020, she was one of 15 young researchers worldwide to receive the Early Career Award from the International Brain Research Organization, which was also the first time a Vietnamese female doctor received this award. Another mark for her is that she is one of three female scientists honored as "Outstanding Female Scientist" in 2022 (L'Oréal - UNESCO for Women in Science) with potential research projects for health and benefits for the community. Together with her colleagues, she won the third prize at the 16th National Technical Innovation Contest with the project "Research and development of an artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data application system to support doctors in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease based on brain MRI images". Meanwhile, Associate Professor, Dr. Le Thanh Long chose the main research direction of calculating fluid dynamics for application in electronic devices. His outstanding work studied the thermal capillary movement of liquid in a microchannel under the influence of a laser heat source. The results of this research provided a new method for flexibly controlling liquid droplets in a microfluidic channel, using a heat source emitted from a laser. This method is quite important in the development of electronic chip devices used in nanotechnology, MEMS microelectromechanical systems and the field of automation.

Dr. Ha Thi Thanh Huong received the Golden Globe Award for young talents in the field of science and technology - Photo: NVCC

I was taught that the path to progress is neither short nor easy and I consider that as my motto in life and work.

TS HA THI THANH HUONG

Contribute to a better community

Mr. Long and his research team have successfully created two products that have been applied in practice. One is the disinfection chamber, which adds a tool to prevent the COVID-19 epidemic at a time when the epidemic is tense in Ho Chi Minh City. The other product is the Polytechnic IoT check-in system that helps identify people entering the school by scanning cards with a camera in just 5 seconds, so there is no need to worry about congestion when there are many people at the same time, and all data is stored in the school's centralized database system. In addition to the Polytechnic University, the product is also applied in a few other schools. "We have completed the final stage of the negative pressure room product. With the pressure in the room lower than the environmental pressure, the air can only go from one side and cannot escape through the side it entered. This helps ensure microbiological safety, preventing viruses from spreading back into the environment during the process of entering and exiting to care for and treat patients," said Mr. Long. This product belongs to the topic "Research, design and manufacture of isolation buffer container modules, automatic surface disinfection for use in field hospitals". This is a topic at the level of the Department of Science and Technology of Ho Chi Minh City that was accepted in early 2023, approved in 2020, when the whole country was entering the stage of preventing the COVID-19 epidemic. Mr. Long is also one of the active young cadres of the school in the Green Summer campaign for many years, together with the school's volunteers completing many rural traffic routes in remote communes in some provinces in the West. The Brain Analytics software analyzes MRI images of patients' brains and diagnoses Alzheimer's disease accurately, automatically, and quickly (within seven hours) and has been proposed by Dr. Thanh Huong and his colleagues. The results have been trained and tested on the ADNI database (USA) with an accuracy of up to 96%. The project shows the importance of applying technology in solving medical problems. The software has been tested and evaluated by doctors and medical students at eight different hospitals nationwide. The results showed that 80% of users said they were satisfied with the features provided by the software. The Brain Analytics project has connected with nearly 300 doctors at 42 hospitals nationwide and won many awards at both national and international levels. These include the third prize of GIST-Catalyst ASIA, the second prize of the Ho Chi Minh City Innovation Award, the third prize of the National Technical Innovation Competition... proving that the initiatives of Thanh Huong and her colleagues are actively and effectively contributing to the medical field of the city and the country.

Scientific luggage

To date, Dr. Thanh Huong has published 24 articles in prestigious international scientific journals (listed in Q1, 2, 3, 4). She is also the author of three monographs in the biomedical field, and is the head of the basic project "Research on the impact of mindfulness meditation on stress levels and brain activity in students, contributing to the development of applications to protect psychological and mental health" which has been accepted. Dr. Thanh Long also has 35 scientific articles published in journals, participated in prestigious international scientific conferences; 16 articles published in scientific journals and domestic conferences. He is the co-author of a monograph; chaired a national-level project and chaired projects at the department, national university, and basic levels that have been accepted as meeting requirements.

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