Vietnam Women's Union

A Vietnamese Women Engineer Among Top Scientist

31/07/2006

In 2001, she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, an award given by WITI Foundation. WITI is considered the most prestigious award given to women who have made significant contributions in the fields of science and technology. The award inlcuded her in the list of the most internationally outstanding scientists.

As an alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin, 43-year-old technician currently serves as the Digital Signal Processor (DSP) Advanced Technology Ramp Manager at Texas Instruments (TI), a silicon-based semi-conductor manufacturing company in the US.

Duy Loan came to the US at the age of 12 without English knowledge and support. She faced so many difficulties to fit with the new life but she was determined to pursue her studies.

After completing her electrical engineering degree at UT Austin in only three years, she joined Texas Instruments (TI) as a DRAM-memory design engineer. While working full time at TI, Duy-Loan earned a master’s degree from the University of Houston.

Duy Loan was selected for a senior member of the Technical board by TI Company in 1993. Duy-Loan made history at TI by becoming the first woman to be elected a TI Senior Fellow in 1997. Five years later, she was the first woman and the first Asian to hold Deputy Director position in the company.

Moreover, Duy-Loan currently serves on the Board of Directors for National Instruments, a member company of NASDAQ, in August, 2002.

Although she is busy and successful in her career, she is interested in social activities. She and her husband established the Mona Foundation and Sunflower Mission, humanitarian organizations for promoting education for children and providing scholarships for children in 11 countries, including Viet Nam.

Since 2002, her organizations have made collected donations for building classrooms in Viet Nam's provinces of Dong Thap, Ben Tre, An Giang and Phu Yen. Study Promotion Fund Dao-Le of Sunflower Mission has given scholarships for nearly 500 needy pupils and students in Viet Nam.

Sunflower Mission is becoming a bridge to lead tens of groups of US students of Texas University to Viet Nam to join charitable campaigns under the form of workcamp. This year, the organization will build two classrooms in the southern provinces of Kien Giang and An Giang.

She teaches her children the love of Viet Nam and connectedness by bringing them back to the country. She is also searching educational cooperation and trade programs to help advance technology in Viet Nam through various university programs and business connections as part of project “Bringing Technology Back to Viet Nam.”