Kovalevskaia Prize in Vietnam: 30 years of accompanying Vietnamese female scientists

The prestigious prize is named after the great Russian female mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaia, and is awarded by the fund of the same name. The fund is operating in eight countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

The VietnamKovalevskaiaPrize Committee was established in 1985. Since then, it has been awarded 17 collectives and 44 individualsfor their scientific research in mathematics, chemistry, biology, healthcare, education, and agriculture.The 2015 Kovalevskaia awards were presented to Associate Professor, Doctor Dang Thi Cam Ha, Former Chief of the Environmental bio-technology division- Institute of Biotechnology and PhD. Doctor Pham Thi Ngoc Thao, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City’s Cho Ray Hospital. Ha was honoured for her research works o­n environmental protection, especially biotechnologies to clean up contaminating oil in different eco-environments and treat soil contaminated by dioxin-contained herbicides.Meanwhile, Thao has numerous research projects in the field of hematology

Speaking at the event, Politburo Member,Secretary of the Party Central Committee and Head of Mass Mobilisation Commission, Mme. Truong Thi Mai affirmed that the Kovalevskaia Prize, since the country’s innovation period (Đổi mới), has accompanied Vietnamese female scientists and became a noble prize at national level. The research achievements as well as scientific application in reality of 61 individuals and group winners have contributed importantly to the country’s 30-year renewal cause. Prize winners are not o­nly exemplary oftheirpassion for science, but also good virtues of the Vietnamese women. o­n behalf of the Party and State, Mrs. Truong Thi Mai spoke highly of their achievements and expressed her hope that the prize winners would put more effort into research and gain greater success to increase the products’ quality, increase competitiveness of Vietnamese goods in the market and keep inspiring younger generation, thuspromoting social advancement andimprovingquality of life and human resource.

In the opening remark, VWU President Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa reviewed the Kovalevskaia Prize over the past 30 years. It has become “an intimate partner of Vietnamese female intellectuals during the period of innovation, an acknowledgement, a great encouragement that empowers them to look into scientific research, especially in natural science”. She also showed her gratitude to Former Vice President of Vietnam Madame Nguyen ThiBinh, who has had a strong attachment to the Prize over the past years as well as Dr. Neal and Ann Koblitz who established the Kovalevskaia Prize to commend and encourage scientific research activities of Vietnamese women.

Also at the ceremony, The Kovalevskaia Prize Committee granted a scholarship in the field of mathematics to Hoang Hue Cam, a student from class 10A1 math-majored in High school for gifted students, Hanoi University of Science, Vietnam National University.

Within the framework of the program, VWU’s Presidium awarded certificates of merit to 38 Associate Professors and 38 female PhDs who are members of Vietnam Association for Intellectual women and were given titles in 2015 and successfully defended their doctoral theses in 2014 and 2015

Female scientists presented a picture to Kovalevskaia Prize Committee’s President Nguyen ThiBinh