Vietnamese woman who won two Nobel Prizes

Born in 5 years, the Kavli Award has become a major international award; is considered a 'Nobel Literature'. Recently, the owner of this award in 2014 was chosen, this reminds me of an outstanding Vietnamese woman in 2012 who owned not only a "Nobel World" Literature Prize , but also another 'Eastern Nobel' .

>>>Vietnamese woman has them named for meteors

Pride of Vietnamese people

It is the most famous female astrophysicist in Vietnam and the world, whose full Vietnamese name is Luu Le Hang, written in a foreign file as Jane X. Luu. As a young man, he may be able to address intimacy as Ms. Hang or Ms. Luu.

Born in 1963, bearing the blood of both parents from the North, grew up and attended primary school in the South, in 1975 went to the United States and completed education at famous schools: 1984 received a Bachelor's degree in Physics at the University Stanford, a Master's Degree in Masters at the Berkeley Institute of the University of California and finally, in 1990 a Ph.D. in Astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Figure 1 - Owners of the 'Asian Nobel Prize' - Shaw Prize in 2012. (Documentary image from Shaw Prize)

With the intelligence and innate energy, the passion and the world's leading research and research conditions, the excellent learning and research results achieved in the process of studying and implementing research topics Master's and Doctoral studies have taken the name of scientist Jane X. Luu famous as a wise young woman with a vast knowledge of the infinite sky near and far, especially pioneering. in the most significant and modern inventions, expanding the human vision of vast, far-flung horizons.

And it was these creative labor achievements that brought Luu Le Hang the prestigious awards, and put her on the prestigious ladder, especially for a foreign-born woman, in her teaching career. University is Professor at Harvard University, USA (1994 - 1998) and University of Leiden, Netherlands (1998 - 2001) and in scientific research career is senior honorary researcher at prestigious addresses. as big as the Laboratories at Harvard University, the Space Science Research Institute at the University of Hawaii, Research Centers at MIT's Massachusetts Institute of Technology .

Develop awareness of Solar System

Until now it was the biggest career of female scientist Luu Le Hang. Human knowledge of the Solar System (or Solar System) has changed a lot in the past few decades. And the female scientist Liu not only quickly grasped the rich knowledge collected over the past centuries to the solar system that she herself contributed to that treasure with unique inventions that changed the perception. of humanity about the vast space in which we live.

About ten years ago, the structure of the Solar System is still simple to imagine compared to now (see figure 2).

Figure 2- The Solar System.

The solar system is described as a system of planets, the sun is in the middle and is surrounded by 9 solar bodies attracted by the Sun, including 8 main planets and 1 'sub' planet, forming 3 groups.

Group I in the innermost region, consisting of four small planets: Glass (Mercury), Venus (Venus), Earth (Earth) and Mars (Mars), these are small, solid planets, which are composed of weak by rocks and metals, with high density and relatively similar composition, it is called the group of rocky planets.

Group II in the outer region, consisting of four giant planets with a much larger mass than the four Plan I planets, of which, the two largest planets, Jupiter (Jupiter) and Saturn (Saturn), have ingredients mainly from helium and hydrogen; and two smaller planets, Uranus (Uranus) and Neptune (Neptune), have main ingredients from ice (like water, ammonia and methane). They are very large in size but low in density and are therefore sometimes called the 'giant' ice planet subgroups.

Group III for many years was thought to be only Pluto (Pluto) alone.

The awareness of the solar system as above until the end of the 20th century proved to be inadequate, and could not explain all the information collected by modern astronomical survey devices. Luu Le Hang entered into this period at the same time with astronomer researcher David Jewitt during his time as a graduate student at the Master's level and Doctor of Astrophysics. Both are the owners and are the core of the research project in a new and daring scientific direction - Investigating slow moving objects (Slow-Moving Objects) outside the Solar System.

They conducted research to prove the existence of a belt of a multitude of large planets 'forests' distributed from outside the orbit of Neptune, surpassing Pluto (Pluto) and out. further. The belt is called the Kuiper Belt, created by two astronomers Edgeworth and Kuiper from the mid-20th century. He has worked for five years, using the most advanced research facilities at MIT Research Center and Harvard University, at the astronomical institutions Kitt Peak (Arizona) and Mauna Kea (Hawaii), in 1992 Jewitt and Luu found the meteor named 1992 QB1 with a diameter of 280km ( equal to 1/8 Pluto or Pluto). And then there are dozens more discoveries of this research group itself and hundreds of other discoveries of a large astronomical community around the world.

All proved in the space outside Neptune's orbit, there were large objects with light constituents such as water, ammonia, and methane. These are thousands of tiny bodies of different sizes, from comets, centaurs to interplanetary dust. Among them are 5 heavenly bodies in size, namely Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, Eris and Pluto (Pluto). These planets, though considered large enough to have a spherical shape under the influence of their own gravity, but due to their high porosity (very low material density) or small total mass, Since August 2006 this group of planets has been named dwarf planets. This 'dwarf' group is the group III in the solar system structure diagram (Figure 2), which was previously known as Pluto Pluto alone.

So is the existence in the Kuiper belt that teachers and students or two Jewitt and Luu colleagues pursue. This invention has a great significance, which opens the door to a new era of fuller awareness of the solar system and gradually contributes to the theory of cosmic formation. The existence of Kuiper rings is also not suspicious because of the existence of another Another asteroid belt between Mars (Mars) and Jupiter (Jupiter), although the composition is different from most of the rock. and metal, were also identified earlier.

With the research achievements, female scientist Luu has continuously received prestigious awards from the region and the world. In 1991, shortly after receiving a Ph.D., the American Astronomical Society awarded the Annie J. Cannon Award for Astronomy for the new Dr. Viet Luu Le Hang. And to acknowledge her work in discovering more than 30 new asteroids or asteroids, one takes her name for a new meteorite that she surveyed and discovered, that is, Asteroid 5430 Luu .

In particular, 2012 was the year of this elite astrophysicist when the name Luu Le Hang was named in both the world's most prestigious astronomy awards in the same year. In March 2012, in Norway's Oslo capital, the Kavli Foundation announced the 2012 Astronomical Kavli Prize with a prize of $ 1 million. This prize is considered the "World Astronomical Nobel Prize" and the owner of the three astronomers discovered many large objects in the Kuiper belt, David Jewitt, Jane X. Luu (ie Luu Le Hang), and Michael Brown. Next, in May 2012, in Hong Kong, Shaw Foundation named the 2012 Astronomer Shaw winners; also known as the " Oriental Astronomical Nobel Prize" with $ 1 million in bonuses, it is the new Dr. Jane X. Luu with his teacher and colleague Professor David C. Jewitt, Director of the Institute of Celestial Research (Institute for Planets and Exoplanets), University of California - Los Angeles, United States. About contributions in identifying ' Trans-Neptunian Objects', abbreviated as TNOs.

Epilogue

With outstanding talents and research achievements, Viet Luu Le Hang, a female scientist, is truly worthy of the objective honor of astronomers and award organizations in the world. What is remarkable is that after 3 years working in the Netherlands, in 2001, the scientist; This teacher returned to the United States but did not return to any institute's scientific research office or sit in a professor's chair at any university. Luu Le Hang accepted a position at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, which specializes in astronomical equipment manufacturing and now researches more technological solutions to the US national security issue. And now she is still living with her husband Hoogerwerf, a Dutch astronomer and a 6-year-old Vietnamese adopted daughter in Lexington, Massachusetts, near Harvard and MIT.

Someone questioned: why? But many people believe that: not why, simply because it is the nature and quality of Luu Le Hang as inherent. For this Vietnamese woman, it seems that scientific labor and new achievements in the field of astronomy attract passion, not title, position and honor. of this institute, university.

After reaching the peak of Thien Thien School and astrophysicist, Ms. Luu Le Hang is working in the field of equipment manufacturing, in which the devices are more advanced for astronomy. But she was young, only in the age of 51. Perhaps, one fine day, the omnipotent female scientist Liu did not return to the glorious past, though it was far away, but would be at a high level. other.

From 1995, she visited the country. During the trip to Vietnam that year, she was invited to attend a seminar on physical science in Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City is organized by overseas Vietnamese scientists in collaboration with domestic colleagues named 'Vietnam Meetings'. In the 1995 conference, female scientist Luu Le Hang presented a scientific report on her astronomical research achievements.

So, maybe, in a certain opportunity, she was inspired by the colleagues in Vietnamese astronomy centers to shake hands so that she could have the opportunity to contribute to the development of Astronomy. fledgling right in my country was born? A job that many Vietnamese scientists had a reputation for in the US, France and other countries did and some young scientists have just received awards and honors in the world such as Ngo Bao. Chau, Dam Thanh Son . are always standing side by side with domestic colleagues.