'Finding the winners of the VinFuture 2025 Awards is a real challenge'

The VinFuture 2025 Prize Council members said that this year's nominations were so amazing that finding the winners was a real challenge.

As one of the representative faces of the world's agricultural science, Professor Pamela Christine Ronald - who was honored with the prestigious Wolf Prize and the VinFuture Special Prize 2022 - returns to Vietnam in 2025 in a new role: Member of the VinFuture Prize Council.

In a conversation with the press ahead of the VinFuture 2025 Awards Ceremony, she shared about research progress, collaborations with Vietnam and the challenges in finding this year's award winners.

Professor Pamela Christine Ronald - Member of the VinFuture Prize Council.

- Since the VinFuture Prize 2022, how has your work developed so far?

The work I received in 2022 was for discovering a gene called the submergence resistance gene. It was a team effort.

What I bring to VinFuture 2025 is the result of my research with a researcher, my colleague Flor Ercoli. She used to work in my lab as a researcher, but is now starting her own lab at the University of California, Riverside (UCR).

We discovered a gene that helps plants' root systems grow, develop and expand rapidly, thereby reducing methane emissions by 40%.

- Since being honored at VinFuture 2022, in the past 3 years, what connections have you had with agronomy researchers in Vietnam? How has the initial stage of that cooperation progressed, Professor?

I have had the opportunity to attend the VinFuture Prize twice and to visit the Vietnam National University of Agriculture. I am currently studying practical ways to reduce methane emissions. In Vietnam, there are many very talented scientists who are applying what we call “alternate wetting and drying” to reduce methane emissions.

This time, I had the opportunity to visit the Biotechnology Center. Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to welcome Vietnamese students or researchers to work and research in my laboratory. Hopefully in the future, that will become a reality.

- After being honored at the VinFuture Prize 2022, you took on a new role as a member of the Prize Council. As both a nominee and a "judge" for a major prize, how do you feel?

When I received the award in 2022, I was extremely excited and really surprised. When I came to Vietnam and witnessed the organization of the Organizing Committee, I felt very impressed and amazed, because everyone worked so hard and dedicated to create such a wonderful event.

This time, as a member of the Awards Council, I feel very happy and proud to be the one to review and evaluate many nominations. I must say that the nominations are truly excellent. Being able to contribute to selecting the award winners and meeting them directly, I feel extremely happy, happy for them too, because I was in the same position as them and know how that feels.

Professor Pamela Christine Ronald shared on the topic "Re-engineering rice plants to adapt to climate change" within the framework of VinFuture Science and Technology Week 2025.

- How do you evaluate this year's nominations?

The nominations this year are fantastic. The winners are also fantastic, and we'll know the results soon.

This is a real challenge. We have three committees to screen, review, and then select the winners of this year's award. Sometimes we see a group of authors whose work is very impressive and very good, but we still need to check carefully whether they are really suitable and fully meet the criteria of the award; whether those studies focus on solving fundamental scientific problems or not.

We think very carefully about who makes the fundamental discoveries and how the applications are developed, how many people are needed to move the basic science further and into practical applications. These are the criteria we aim for.

- It can be seen that over the past 4 years, the VinFuture Prize has undergone many changes, especially when the winners have also been honored with other major awards such as the Nobel Prize. In your current role as a member of the Prize Council, how do you view it, Professor?

The Prize Committee selects the winners based on the quality of their research and its impact, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. These criteria may overlap with those of the Nobel Prize Committee.

I think the Council members do not feel pressured by that, but the laureates do. As we know, last year there was a VinFuture laureate who later won the Nobel Prize. It is really nice to see the VinFuture laureates continue to receive other prizes.

Last year we received 1,500 nominations and this year the number is even higher. We also strongly encourage our partners to nominate Vietnamese research projects.

- Thank you very much, Professor!

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/tim-ra-chu-nhan-cac-giai-thuong-vinfuture-2025-thuc-su-la-thach-thuc-ar991007.html