Nguyen Giang Son in Delft City, Holland.

As a teenager, Son passed the entrance exam of the Ho Chi Minh City High School for the Gifted under the Vietnam National University – HCMC, and began an intensive study program with a focus on biology. There he continued to impress his teachers with his knowledge of the subject and could answer nearly any question they posed him.

They later discovered that Son had also been reading all of his father’s biology texts in his spare time.

In university, Son chose to major in biotechnology because “Vietnam is basically an agricultural country, and biotechnology can help develop agricultural production through things like making biopesticides and biofertilizers.”

In 2007, Son traveled to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, to attend a doctoral program at the University of Greifswald under a three-year government scholarship.

Son chose enzymes, the proteins that control biochemical reactions, as the subject of his doctoral thesis, and entered the VentureCup science contest with his two German partners, Dr. Robert Kourist and Anita Gollin. Their project for the contest themed “Valuable products for the pharmaceutical industry,” was also focused on enzyme research.

Asked why he chose to study enzymes, the 27-year-old says, “Enzymes are multifunctional. For me, enzymes are like high-ranking workers in the human body. And metabolism cannot be carried out in our bodies without the industrious workers. Not to mention that they always work tirelessly and precisely.”

Son’s three-person team, known as Baltic Fine Chemicals, was rewarded for their hard work when they won first prize and 130,000 euros (US$181,159) in cash at the VentureCup, which wrapped up last month.

After winning the contest, Son continues to be busy attending several international conferences and furthering his research. Yet, he says he feel lucky to be able to work so much, as it offers him the chance to keep learning about the subject he’s most passionate about.

VNN/TN/TT