Ahead of the Season 3 Award Ceremony, what does the international scientific community say about VinFuture?

I first learned about VinFuture through the introduction of Prof. Nguyen Thuc Quyen, Co-Chair of the Preliminary Council, Prof. Antonio Facchetti (Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University, USA, and also Chief Technology Officer at Flexterra), impressed by the mission and transparent, equal, and unbiased evaluation criteria of the Award.

“ The mission of the VinFuture Prize is commendable. I had the opportunity to attend the inaugural Award Ceremony and was extremely impressed by the way it was run, as well as the way the Councils selected the deserving winners.

What's even more amazing is that the Grand Prize Winners of that year were also honored with the Nobel Prize ,” he said.

Professor Antonio Facchetti was impressed by the mission and the transparent, equal, and unbiased evaluation criteria of the VinFuture Prize. (Photo: Advanced Science News)

Prof. Kazunari Domen (University of Tokyo, Japan, one of the great leaders in the field of catalysis in general and photocatalysis in particular) also highly appreciated the clear and unique mission of the VinFuture Prize: Science serving humanity.

According to him, this guiding principle is one of the things that makes VinFuture different and unique despite its young age.

“ In a world with diverse social classes, from rich to poor, the VinFuture Prize has a vision to break free from conventional prejudices and frameworks, aiming at all scientists, including scientists from developing countries and female scientists ,” he said.

Prof. Kazunari Domen speaks at the International Chemistry Conference ICCS 2022 taking place from December 8-11, 2022 at the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi. (Photo: TL) — Prof. Kazunari Domen speaks at the International Chemistry Conference ICCS 2022 taking place from December 8-11, 2022 at the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi . (Photo: TL)

The Tokyo professor also pointed out that with an unprecedented “lens”, the VinFuture Prize sees the potential for positive impact from scientists, regardless of who they are or where they come from. This is something that VinFuture has done and deserves to be honored.

Sharing his views on the categories and evaluation criteria of VinFuture, Prof. Stuart Licht (George Washington University, USA, a leading expert on carbon capture solutions from the air) emphasized the civility of the Award when it is ready to honor female scientists and scientists from developing countries. These are people who are often considered to be weaker or have less voice in the research community.

“ VinFuture is an unbiased award that is open to honoring all talented scientists ,” said Professor Stuart Licht.

Agreeing with the above statement, Professor Henry Snaith (Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford University, UK; 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics candidate) believes that VinFuture will be a lever to help research projects bring their effects to places that are still facing difficulties. At the same time, the Prize also inspires a generation of young scientists to pursue their careers.

“ There are countless pressing issues affecting human life and finding ways to solve them should be a top priority. The focus of the VinFuture Prize is to find and honor scientists who have successfully solved or are solving these global challenges. This is a very good direction ,” the expert shared.

Professor Stuart Licht emphasized the civility of the VinFuture Prize when it is ready to honor female scientists and scientists from developing countries. (Photo: GWU)

Vietnam's mark in cooperation to solve global problems

Not only impressed with VinFuture's rapid growth after only 3 years of operation, the world's leading scientific minds also emphasized how this Prize contributes to bringing Vietnam closer to the international community.

According to Professor Henry Snaith, VinFuture's efforts to promote scientific awareness are a continuous journey, demonstrated through each activity that is invested in thoroughly and elaborately in both scale and depth of expertise.

“ From organizing online seminars to high-level scientific discussions, VinFuture helps shape the challenges posed by practice and thereby facilitates regular exchanges between Vietnamese scientists and the world’s leading research community, ” said Prof. Snaith.

Sharing the same view, Prof. Licht believes that the VinFuture Prize, with its practical evaluation criteria, will be a bridge between globally recognized research projects and Vietnam in particular and developing countries in general. At the same time, the effect that VinFuture creates will also help raise awareness and create a common voice of the international community in solving urgent global problems.

“ This is the first time I have seen a big prize with a great mission and vision like VinFuture. VinFuture helps change the way the world looks at Vietnam, ” the professor from George Washington University explained.

Professor Henry Snaith believes that the VinFuture Prize inspires a generation of young scientists to pursue their careers. (Photo: Oxford University)

Meanwhile, Prof. Domen said that VinFuture is affirming its mission of bridging and contributing to raising the status of Vietnam and developing countries. He believes that a big prize like VinFuture will bring many benefits to international cooperation in the future.

“ Vietnam is a country with development potential and will become a strategic partner in both economics and science and technology. Therefore, I believe that VinFuture will play an important role in forming global research and cooperation links ,” Prof. Domen expected.

The VinFuture 2022 Main Prize worth US$3 million was awarded to five scientists with breakthrough inventions in connecting global network technology. (Photo: VFP)

As a member of many large research communities, Prof. Facchetti realized that the first Vietnamese-initiated science and technology award is now increasingly present in the international scientific community. Most members of his community are no longer unfamiliar with this prestigious award.

“ More importantly, I believe that the VinFuture Foundation and Prize are making a great contribution to the effort to put Vietnam on par with countries that regularly organize large-scale science and technology events such as the United States, Japan, and Norway, ” Professor Facchetti affirmed.

Bao Anh

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