These female scientists were praised for their outstanding work in health and environment protection and high applicable biological solutions.

With the desire to relieve the pain of Agent Orange/dioxin victims and their families, Associate Professor Dr Bach Khanh Hoa has conducted many high applicable scientific works, helping save thousands of victims. Assoc. Prof Bach Khanh Hoa was born in 1955. After graduating from the Hanoi Medical University, she was allocated to work at the Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi. Since then, apart from her daily duties, she and her colleagues have silently conducted researches in fields of hematology and immunization.

Assoc. Prof Hoa’s research works focused on chromosome disorder among veterans exposed to Agent Orange/Dioxin and their children and grandchildren and also on inborn deformities that have great values in examining and treating dioxin victims. These works became scientific evidence that could force the US claim responsibility on post-war consequences in Vietnam. She was also one of the first person in Vietnam who put forward new research about a Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) and its application in viscera transplant surgeries. Besides, she also trained and gave instructions to many doctor teams and medical personnel of many other cities and provinces throughout the country about techniques to protect and fight against HIV/AIDS.

Until now, Assoc. Prof Hoa has chaired four ministry-level projects, conducted research on two State-level projects and one city-level project, announced over 66 newspaper articles placed on specialized magazines both domestically and internationally. In 2010, she was granted “Eminent Doctor” title.

With 70 percent of researchers are women, the staff of the Experimental Biology Center under the Technological Application Institute produced many practical products associated with the real life. Nearly 20 years ago, they researched the production of nutritious supplement products from sea weeds to make cooking for human and animal. From that result, in 2008 the Center conducted a pilot project at the Ministry of Science and Technology level entitled: “Producing some high nutrition and high biologically-active products (capsules, tablets and granulated medicine) from Spirulina weed” with the goal of applying the results of their researches into life. These products of the project were granted standard certificates by the Department of Food Hygiene and Safety of the Ministry of Health. At present, the researchers at the center are continuing their researches to produce many useful products for the society, especially they will keep on multiplying a number of valuable local medicinal plants.

The road to science for women often demands twice or three-fold efforts compared with men as apart from spending time on learning and researching, they have to play their roles of wives and mothers. Therefore, their successes deserve to be acknowledged, contributing to strengthen women’s positions in the society.

The Kovalevskaya Award was named after the great Russian female mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya who lived in the 19th century. The awards are presented annually on the International Women’s Day March 8th by the Vietnam’s Women Union. Over the past 28 years, 39 individuals and 16 teams of outstanding female scientists have received the noble awards.

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