Two female scientists to get Kovalevskaya Award

The Vietnamese Kovalevskaya Award Committee has decided to confer the 2011 Kovalevskaya Award on two Vietnamese scientists for their great contributions to science.

The award, named after Russian mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850–1891), will be presented to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Thi Thanh Nhan, vice headmaster of the Science University under the Thai Nguyen University, and Vo Thi Thu Ha, vice rector of Vietnam Institute of Industrial Chemical, on International Women’s Day, March 8.

Dr. Nhan, 42, was bestowed with the Associate Professor title when she was just 35 and was then the youngest Associate Professor in Mathematics in Vietnam. She is now the director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s key laboratory for petrochemical refinery technology.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ha is the author of many outstanding scientific works, including one on producing biological solvents from renewable material.

The Kovalevskaya Award is an annual prize for either groups of, orindividual female scientists showing outstanding achievements in researching and applying science in practical life, with usefulness in socio-economic and cultural fields.

The Vietnam Kovalevskaya Award Committee was founded in 1985 and is headed by Mrs. Nguyen Thi Binh, former Vice President of Vietnam. By 2010, the Committee had selected and awarded prizes to 34 individuals and 15 groups.

Last year, the two winners of the Kovalevskaya Award were Luong Chi Mai, Assoc. Prof. Dr. and deputy director of the Institute of Information Technology and Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology; and Nguyen Thi Loc, PhD and head of Insect Ecology and Biological Control of the Mekong Delta Rice Research Institute.

Sofia Kovalevsky was the first major female Russian mathematician, who made important contributions to mathematical analysis, differential equations and mechanics, and the first woman appointed to a full professorship in Northern Europe.

This prestigious award named in her honor is given to promising young academics to pursue their line of research in the sciences or arts and humanities.