Vietnamese professors are famous in Australia

From the kitchen side, Mr. Tuan studied at the university, worked as a research assistant and pursued a PhD program, becoming a world-renowned professor.

Any doctor in Vietnam and in the world who is treating osteoporosis or studying it will be familiar with or use a fracture risk assessment model called "Garvan Fracture Risk Calculator". But few people know the model author is Vietnamese - Professor Nguyen Van Tuan. He has just been awarded the highest doctoral degree by the University of New South Wales (Australia) for his outstanding contributions to the world of osteoporosis. But behind that honor is the arduous time and beyond his adversity.

Professor Tuan was born into a farming family in Kien Giang, a native of Binh Dinh. In early 1982, he settled in Australia. When asked by Australian embassy officials for the reason to come to this country, after a few stumbling blocks, he was innocent: "I want to see Kangaroo." The interviewer laughed and said: "Ok, I accept you. Go over there to do the procedure."

After 8 hours of flying, he set foot in Sydney city on the National Day. While everyone carried luxury luggage, he only had one bag containing two suits; feet go bata, wear white shirt and black trousers. " Hai Lua is better than me, because I didn't have a coin at the time," he recalls.

Start with the kitchen side

Arriving in Australia, the first thing he did was learn English, but he was bored when "How are you", "I am fine, thank you", "I am looking for a job" . Leaving school, he was determined to learn by himself, only one word a day but thoroughly understand it. Any word that doesn't understand him pulls out the dictionary.

When he became more confident in communicating with the natives, he began to look for a job and was accepted to work as a cook in St Vincent's famous hospital. The daily work is to wash pots, bowls, and sliced ​​onions. " I have never seen such big onions. Just tearing my eyes and running around because of the spicy, but I do not dare to cry, because there is a good job at the time," he said.

After finishing the main job, he continued to clean the kitchen and almost had no time to rest. Every day for two breaks, each time only 15 minutes for breakfast or coffee. If the employee is over time, even if it is 5 minutes, the employee will be deducted."People here work like a machine, very tired but I'm happy that having a job has money sent to Vietnam," he said. This work also helped him shape his personality - even though it was a small task, he had to be very careful and good, cutting onions must also be easy to see and arrange bowls so beautifully.

After spending time at St Vincent's, with a kitchen experience, he found a second job in the kitchen of a newly opened 5-star hotel, double the salary. Only a short time, he accumulated enough money to buy cars.

Unable to be a cook, he applied to study at the University of Sydney part time but was not accepted because he thought he could not learn. After that, he enrolled at Macquarie University, which opened the new epidemiology and statistics studies he wanted to pursue, because it was directly related to the new job - research assistant at the Research and Design Department. New South Wales Ministry of Health planning.

The process of studying and language is the most difficult factor for Vietnamese students. He only knew how to use a few lines of lecturers on the board to guess what he was saying. In order to keep up with you, every night he often stays at the library reading and doing lessons. For 3 years in a row, every night he came home from 22-23h.

Professor Nguyen Van Tuan.(Photo: NVCC).

Professor at the prestigious school

After completing his thesis masters at Macquarie, he returned to the University of Sydney to become an assistant lecturer and a doctoral program. In early 1990, he was "recruited" to work at the Garvan Medical Research Institute (Garvan Institute of Medical Research), of St Vincent's Hospital. The Institute is a specialist training center for the University of New South Wales and St Vincent's Hospital - where he worked as a chef more than 9 years ago.

At that time, the Garvan Institute was conducting large-scale research on osteoporosis. They need operators to research, collect and analyze data for international publication. He worked with a leading professor in the field, who later instructed his thesis. For eight years, he focused his attention on endocrinology, bone and osteoporosis studies, from basic biological problems to clinical genetics.

In 1994, in an accidental discovery, he and a postdoctoral student came up with the idea of ​​studying the role of vitamin D receptor genetics (VDR gene for short) in bone. The study is published in many leading magazines in the world and opens new directions in the industry. He and the teacher received many international awards from research on hereditary osteoporosis.

In 2007, he and a Vietnamese graduate student used previous research achievements to develop a model for predicting fracture risk, based on the "personalization" principle . The model called "Garvan Fracture Risk Calculator" or "Nguyen's Model" , is used by doctors around the world in clinical management of osteoporosis patients. Recently, he and another graduate student created a "gene signature" to predict fractures in postmenopausal women, and the work was awarded in 2017. In 2015, the Garvan Institute celebrated its 50th anniversary. , he is one of 25 people recorded credit.

In 2008, after years of striving for achievements, he was rewarded with a "research chair" called research fellowship by the Australian Medical and Medical Council (NHMRC), for five years to receive research funding. learn. Each year only 50-70 of the 2,000 candidates receive a "research chair" and he is the only Vietnamese in Australia awarded.

Next, the University of New South Wales - the top 50 in the world - appointed him a professor."At that time, it was difficult for Asians to be professors. I always set a goal to try to be 2 times higher than the natives. That is, if their standards required x, I would try to achieve. 2x " , he said.

He is currently a professor at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and University of Notre Dame Australia, receiving many lectures and research collaboration from schools, institutes of the US, Europe, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Japan. He has more than 250 scientific publications published in world-renowned journals and is one of the world's most cited medical professors.

Always towards Vietnam

Although he was an Australian citizen, he never considered himself an Australian."I think that I am in a different position between my hometown and my home and my home, and Australia has given me everything and I have contributed to this country with my best, but still difficult to call. this country is home to two words , " he said.

So when the opportunity arises, he wants to contribute to his homeland. Professor Tuan used his experience with the graduate student to write articles on dioxin and published it in an international medical journal. These articles later helped dioxin lawsuits in the US and were compiled into books.

In addition to dozens of specialized classes teaching thousands of doctors in the country, he also spends time guiding Vietnamese fellows. He helped colleagues and graduate students in the country publish more than 35 scientific papers on leading journals in the medical world.

In 2015, invited by Ton Duc Thang University to establish a bone and muscle research laboratory, he and his colleagues in the country carried out the largest osteoporosis study in Vietnam - "Vietnam Osteoporosis Study". He wanted to decode the entire genome for 200 Vietnamese from this study. And one of the goals is to build a model of disease prognosis for Vietnamese people based on genes and environmental factors, thereby making breakthrough contributions with Vietnamese names for world medicine.

Every day he keeps watching the news from Vietnam. He believes that if millions of Vietnamese people have the opportunity and conditions to study, it will be the star of the scientific world."I left my hometown is not a denial, but started to return to a better place. I believe a day is not far away, I will return to my homeland, to fulfill the duty of a born and grown up up in Vietnam, " he said.