Young scientist with many international publications in the field of chemistry

Vinh is currently a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Sciences, Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Sciences and is studying for his doctorate. As a student at Le Quy Don High School for the Gifted, Nha Trang City (Khanh Hoa), Vinh had a passion for natural sciences. Doing experiments, especially chemistry, Vinh was fascinated by the interesting changes of reactions.

When he was in high school, Vinh’s average score in Chemistry was always first in the class every semester and he was selected to participate in the Chemistry training teams. The “sweet fruit” of his passion was recognized by the third prize in the National Chemistry Competition for Excellent Students in 2018, the first prize in the Chemistry Competition for Excellent Students in Khanh Hoa Province in 2018, Silver and Bronze Medals at the 30/4 Traditional Chemistry Olympiad in 2017 and 2016…

Loves science, but Vinh never thought he would be a researcher in the future. He thinks that in order to become a researcher, one must be truly talented and have extensive knowledge. But with his love for Chemistry, Vinh felt that he wanted to deepen and use the knowledge he had learned during three years of specialized study. He decided to study chemistry at Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Sciences. Thanks to the accumulated knowledge base, Vinh can better learn advanced chemistry knowledge in the university program, helping to explain experimental results in research.

From the beginning of the third year, Vinh joined the research group of Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Hoang Phuong, focusing on chemistry-related topics. The first work of which Vinh was the main author was “Manufacturing a carbon-based acid catalyst to convert carbohydrates into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural” published in the journal Molecular Catalysis belongs to category Q2. This research aims to take advantage of a common, cheap material source such as glucose to synthesize highly acidic solid acid catalysts.

According to Vinh, solid acid catalysts can replace common liquid acids such as sulfuric acid (H2SO4), hydrochloric acid (HCl)… used in chemical reactions. These liquid acids are difficult to recover when performing chemical reaction experiments. Due to their difficult recovery properties, liquid acids will pollute the environment and wear out tools and equipment. “Solid acids have similar properties but overcome the disadvantages of liquid acids. They can be prepared from natural materials so they are very feasible in application,” Vinh said.

After the first work, Vinh continued to develop carbon-based solid catalyst systems from agricultural waste sources and apply them to convert abundant biomass sources such as carbohydrates into valuable compounds as biofuels. , biodegradable polymer…

To date, Vinh is the main author and co-author of three articles published in prestigious international journals, including one article in the Q1 category and two articles in the Q2 category. Vinh is also the main author and co-author of three publications at prestigious domestic scientific conferences. He said, being happy when his research was accepted to be published in scientific journals was an encouragement to try harder.

Vinh’s motivation to strive to become a scientist comes from the thought of studying well for a better life in the future. Vinh’s family is inherently difficult. When he was in first grade, his mother got cancer. After 7 years of fighting the disease, Vinh’s mother passed away, leaving the burden of raising her two children to her father. As a market manager, a salary of more than 3 million VND at that time was the main income to support Vinh’s education. During his college years, his sister, 9 years older than Vinh, who worked as an accountant, was the one who supported his studies. Up to now, when he has an income, Vinh always thinks about both living expenses and saving to continue his studies and research.

The joy of successful research, but when Vinh fails, he tells himself to keep a positive spirit and use the knowledge he has learned to explain, thereby finding a new direction. Vinh believes that research that does not produce the results he predicted is not only not useless but also has many good things. This failure can warn himself and other scientists not to repeat this path if they want a different result. But he believes that the expected results may lead to a new research direction or help discover new knowledge that has never been known before. These results will supplement and perfect human knowledge.

From both success and failure in science, Vinh realized that research always requires perseverance and hard work. At these stages, the results may not come yet. But if the scientist continues to try and does not give up with the right direction, the results will await in the following stages. Vinh believes that he must always accumulate a solid foundation of knowledge to be able to orient and apply them to explain and discuss research results.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Hoang Phuong, lecturer in organic chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Sciences commented that in addition to excellent academic and research achievements, Vinh also actively participates in union activities. Associate Professor Phuong said that in research, Vinh has the ability to think independently as well as the ability to work collectively when working as a team leader in a research lab.

Vinh is one of 10 young talents honored by the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Talent Fund, sponsoring a budget of 20 million VND in 2024.