The award ceremony was held on May 19 by the Vietnam Women’s Union Central Committee to celebrate the 130th birthdayanniversary of late President Ho Chi Minh.
The Kovalevskaia Award was named after the Russian mathematician SofiaKovalevskaia and started to be presented in Vietnam in 1986. It is the firstnational award for female scientists.
The prestigious annual award is given to organisations and individuals whoare female scientists and have excellent achievements in research and applyingscience into life, bringing benefits in different fields including economy,society and culture.
Since 1986, the award has been presented to 19 organisations and 48individuals in various fields such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology,agriculture, medicine and information technology.
The Kovalevskaia Award 2019 was given to female scientists of the InfluenzaLaboratory of the Virus Department under the National Institute of Hygiene andEpidemiology and Associate Prof. Dr. Tran Thi Thu Ha, Director of theForestry Research and Development Institute under the Thai Nguyen University.
Research of the female scientists of the Influenza Laboratory helps ease theburden caused by influenza.
Orientation for the research was defined since 2003 when the SARS epidemicoccurred in Vietnam. Since then, the team, led by Associate Prof. Le Thi QuynhMai, joined surveys, took samples and conducted diagnosis of patients undertreatment at the Vietnam-French Hospital since March 2003.
With experiences from the SARS epidemic, the team continued to undertakeresearch on A/H5N1 bird flu on people in the country at the end of 2003.
At present, the anti-virus medicine Oseltamivir-Tamiflu was assessed as themost effective medicine for A/H5N1 and H1N1 treatment that has not beenreplaced or supplemented by any other medicine.
They also successfully isolated the new strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2),making Vietnam one offour countries to successfully isolate this virus.
Associate Prof. Dr. Ha was given the award afterher research on breeding, propagation and intensive cultivation of trees. Shealso has researched propagation and rearing of non-timber forest products andmedicinal herbs, application of molecular biology and molecular biochemistryand developing a number of precious local medicinal plants./.