Lieu, one of 10 researchers winning the 2019 Golden Ball Award, was the only female who received the Young Talent Award in Germany six years ago.

Le Ngoc Lieu

In 2013, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) gave awards to 25 young scientists with excellent research on sustainable development. Lieu was then the only Vietnamese scientist honored.

He research work focuses on refining biofuels from straw and waste materials. She believes that energy is the critical solution to increased global population, and that renewable energy is the best solution.

In 2013, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) gave awards to 25 young scientists with excellent research on sustainable development. Lieu was then the only Vietnamese scientist honored.

Lieu said that the most important benefit of renewable energy sources is reducing environmental pollution. Liquid fuels and biofuels, which are made from renewable biomass, are increasingly becoming a source of fuel for transportation in the future.

The jury board praised Lieu’s research which emphasized the importance of biofuel as a kind of energy to replace fossil fuel.

BMBF in 2019 celebrated the 10th year of awarding and chose 50 out of 200 researchers who won awards to glory. Lieu is one of them.

After finishing general school in Trang Bang district of Tay Ninh province, Lieu went to HCM City to study at the HCM City University of Science and Technology where she began scientific research.

Lieu could not imagine that she was majoring in food technology at university, but shifted to research chemistry and molecular biology for postgraduate period. The shift brings new challenges, but also leads to success.

In fact, Lieu’s scientific research path is not rosy. She was refused by professors at the Singapore National University because of her bad English.

But luckily, she met Prof Neal Chung who admitted her to his research team after he found outstanding achievements in her profile.

After successfully defending adoctoral dissertation, Lieu was invited to the University of Science and Technology of King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia to take a job with the pay ofVND100 million a month.

In 2017, Lieu returned to Vietnam and became a researcher of the International University with the income just half of the previous level. But she said she happy with it.

Lieu got two national awards EUREKA 2007 and VIFOTEC 2008, two international awards (Green Talents 2013, Germany and IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award 2010, Singapore).

She is the main author of 12 scientific articles, and the main author of one patent in the US. 

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