According to a reporter in London, Professor Nguyễn Thị Kim Thanh, who works at University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom, has been awarded the prestigious Thomas Graham Award 2023 by the SCI/RSC alliance, consisting of the Society of Chemical Industry and the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Thomas Graham is one of three distinguished awards from the SCI/RSC alliance recognizing and honoring outstanding contemporary researchers in the field of colloid chemistry at various career stages: the Thomas Graham Award for mid-career researchers, the McBain Medal for early-career researchers, and the Sir Eric Rideal Award for lifetime achievements.
Professor Nguyễn Thị Kim Thanh delivering a lecture in the renowned Friday Evening Discourses (FED) program at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. (Photo: vietnamplus.vn).
The awards are named after prominent figures in the history of colloid chemistry in the UK, including James William McBain, Thomas Graham, and Sir Eric Rideal. They were pioneers in academic research in this field at the University of Bristol, UCL, and the University of Cambridge. Among them, Thomas Graham (December 20, 1805 – September 11, 1869) was a famous Scottish chemist, founder of the London Chemical Society in 1841, and is considered one of the founders of colloid chemistry (he was the first to introduce the term “colloids” in 1851).
At the UK Colloids 2023 conference, held from July 17-19 in Liverpool, UK, Professor Nguyễn Thị Kim Thanh presented to an audience of 400 scientists from around the world. This conference is held every three years and gathers renowned scientists, inventors, and entrepreneurs globally in the field of colloid chemistry.
Her lecture received significant attention and high praise from the scientists and leading experts in colloid chemistry who attended the conference. According to the delegates, Professor Thanh’s lecture contained extensive knowledge, synthesizing various scientific fields by connecting the contributions of British science from Thomas Graham, Michael Faraday to the Braggs (the only father-son pair to win the Nobel Prize in Physics). Following the presentation, many attendees approached Professor Thanh to express their admiration and appreciation for both the content of her lecture and her as an individual.
In an interview with a reporter in the UK, Professor Nguyễn Thị Kim Thanh expressed her joy and pride in receiving the prestigious Thomas Graham Award at such a meaningful time. She noted that after being honored multiple times with prestigious scientific awards (including the Rosalind Franklin Award for all fields of natural sciences and mathematics, and the RSC Interdisciplinary Prize in Chemistry), the Thomas Graham Award in colloid chemistry is a profound recognition of her research expertise in nanomaterials technology, which she has pursued for over 22 years.
She also expressed hope that this award would encourage and inspire young scientists to pursue their dreams of contributing to science and the community. For Vietnam, she wishes the award will help enhance the reputation of Vietnamese intellectuals and scientists in the international scientific community, encouraging young Vietnamese scientists to confidently engage and integrate with the world’s advanced scientific landscape.
Professor Nguyễn Thị Kim Thanh is one of the world’s renowned Vietnamese intellectuals. She is the only Vietnamese to date to receive the Royal Society University Research Fellowship funding from the Royal Academy of the UK and the Commonwealth Fund (2005-2014).
In 2022, she was listed among the “Most Influential Scientists in the World” (comprising the top 2% of scientists globally with impactful research works that are highly cited by other authors) for both career and annual categories. This list was compiled by a team of scientists led by Professor John P.A. Ioannidis from Stanford University (USA) based on the Scopus database.
With her extensive research and teaching achievements in the international arena, Professor Thanh has received numerous prestigious awards in research from reputable scientific organizations and academies worldwide. She has tirelessly worked to realize her aspiration of integrating Vietnamese scientists with the global scientific community and the advanced science standards worldwide.
The year 2023 also marks a significant milestone in Professor Nguyễn Thị Kim Thanh’s research career. In February, she was awarded the “Outstanding Woman in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering 2023” by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) alongside 11 female scientists from the USA, UK, Germany, Italy, China, Singapore, India, Brazil, Japan, and Belgium.
Previously, in November 2022, Professor Thanh had the honor of lecturing in the renowned Friday Evening Discourses (FED) at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. The video of her lecture on the Royal Institution’s YouTube channel attracted over 23,000 views.
