Nguyen Quang Minh just lately joined the School of Chemical and Life Sciences at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), adapting to his new function as a lecturer in Chemical Engineering after returning to Vietnam in February.
He is at the moment centered on establishing a specialised research group in plasma expertise, a area he devoted greater than 5 years to creating in Europe.
Minh’s tutorial credentials embrace two PhDs earned by a joint program between the University of Normandie in France and AGH University of Science and Technology in Poland. He subsequently performed postdoctoral research at the U.Ok.’s University of Liverpool.
Faced with the chance to safe everlasting U.Ok. residency and advance his European profession, Minh as a substitute opted to return to his roots in northern Vietnam.
His motivation for leaving a thriving European profession was simple: he now not wished to “build a house on someone else’s land.”
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Dr. Nguyen Quang Minh at Hanoi University of Science and Technology. Photo courtesy of Minh |
Born in Phu Tho Province, which borders Hanoi, Minh went to HUST after highschool.
His undergraduate years had been unremarkable till his third 12 months, when a course in Catalytic Kinetics sparked a profound shift.
“I became so passionate that I practically devored the textbook,” Minh recalled.
Choosing to concentrate on Organic and Petrochemical Technology, he thrived beneath the mentorship of Associate Professor Dao Quoc Tuy. This steerage ignited his ardour for research and his ambition to train.
Professor Tuy famous that Minh’s dedication prolonged past the petrochemical lab. He surprisingly joined a political concept research group, a uncommon twin dedication that impressed the college.
“Working in two completely different research areas is extremely demanding and requires excellent time management. Yet Minh excelled in both,” Tuy mentioned.
“He also has strong academic ability, research skills, and public speaking talent, well-suited for a teaching career.”
After graduating with engineering honors and finishing his grasp’s at HUST, Minh participated in a six-month change program in Germany. The expertise impressed him to pursue a doctorate overseas and collaborate with main worldwide consultants.
In 2019, Associate Professor Pham Thanh Huyen launched him to the distinguished Marie Skłodowska-Curie scholarship. Following a rigorous choice course of, Minh secured funding for his twin PhD in France and Poland.
His arrival in France examined his resolve.
Landing on a wet December day with restricted language expertise and a damaged SIM card, Minh missed his prepare. Stranded with two outsized suitcases, he referred to as his supervising professor in close to tears.
“Around 8 p.m., my professor drove 80 kilometers in the rain to find me at the station and took me to an apartment he had already arranged,” Minh mentioned. “His dedication became a huge motivation for me to keep going.”
Navigating two universities practically 2,000 kilometers aside offered important logistical hurdles. Minh commuted between France and Poland each few months. He additionally performed research at France’s prestigious Sorbonne University, participated in conferences, and served as a educating assistant.
Minh considered the extreme workload as “positive pressure,” acknowledging the uncommon privilege of finding out throughout a number of top-tier European establishments concurrently. These networks ultimately secured him a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Liverpool.
During his time in Europe, Minh’s research centered on making use of non-thermal plasma expertise to floor remedies and catalytic chemical processes. A serious focus of his work concerned changing industrial emissions, notably carbon dioxide, into useful sources like green methanol, e-fuels, and base chemical substances.
This expertise gives a big benefit: it operates at low temperatures and atmospheric stress, eliminating the necessity for high-temperature furnaces. This makes it a extremely promising avenue for green power options.
Minh’s improvements resulted in a French patent for plasma and catalysis. He additionally printed 9 papers in top-tier scientific journals, together with Applied Catalysis B: Environmental and ACS Catalysis, alongside quite a few shows at worldwide conferences.
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Dr. Nguyen Quang Minh (second row, left) at a world workshop on plasma catalysis for CO2 recycling in Poland in 2022. Photo courtesy of Minh |
His business acumen matched his tutorial success. Minh participated within the Innovation to Commercialization of University Research program, a U.Ok.-funded accelerator that helps researchers validate the market potential of their work.
Receiving mentorship and roughly £30,000 (US$40,444) in early-stage funding, Minh superior to this system’s second spherical. He co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer for the startup PlasmaC2M.
However, upon studying in regards to the HUST-Talent initiative, a 2025-2030 program designed to appeal to, recruit, and retain top-tier younger lecturers, consultants, and main scientists, he made the decisive selection to return to Vietnam.
“My decision to return is not just personal – it’s also a desire to make a small contribution to narrowing the gap between Vietnam and the world in scientific research,” Minh defined.
Minh balances his educating tasks with advancing his plasma purposes research. He is dedicated to equipping his college students with worldwide research methodologies, from deciphering advanced tutorial literature to designing rigorous experiments.
“My goal over the next five years is to build a strong research group so that when people talk about plasma research in Vietnam, they immediately think of teams at HUST,” he mentioned.