Best friends graduate with master's degree and 7 international publications

Truong Thi Thuy Trang (Hanoi) and Vu Thi Ngan (Hai Duong), 24 years old, defended their master's theses at the end of July at the University of Natural Sciences, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, with perfect scores.

Together since university, up to now both have 7 publications in international ISI journals, of which 6 articles are in Q1 journals - a group of the most prestigious scientific journals. During their master's studies, each was the main author of two Q1 articles.

Associate Professor Dr. Pham Tien Duc, Deputy Head of Training Department, University of Natural Sciences, who is also the instructor, said that the two female students defended their program 6 months ahead of schedule. The number of international publications is also the highest among graduate students.

"Importantly, these publications are all published in prestigious, high-impact journals (IF index 6-8.8)," said Dr. Duc.

In college, Trang studied Advanced Chemistry, while Ngan studied Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Natural Sciences. Both said that at first, they only wanted to complete the program, graduate and sell drugs or work in the pharmaceutical industry. However, the day they entered the lab changed the direction of the two female students.

"From the second year, students have to go to the school's lab to practice and do basic research. Trang and I were in the same lab so we gradually became close," Ngan recalls.

When they first joined, Ngan and Trang were assigned to work on two different projects, but both researched nanosilica materials to treat wastewater containing antibiotic residues. Both felt both lucky and worried when they were "wet behind the ears" and were assigned to join the group with seniors to do research, instead of doing chores or simple experiments such as weighing substances, titrating...

Being exposed to modern, novel machines, organic compounds and doing experiments on real materials, Trang and Ngan were excited. However, at first, their hands and feet were still clumsy, and Trang and Ngan repeatedly ruined the experiments.

"I'm not used to it so I keep making mistakes, and it takes weeks to get results. Sometimes I absorb the wrong ingredients, sometimes I cook it wrong, the stove doesn't turn, the machine doesn't work," Trang said.

Each time they finished an experiment, they carefully wrote a report and sent it to their instructor for comments, indicating the passing and failing points. Trang remembered the experiment on adsorption the most. The efficiency had to be over 85%, but Trang could only do a few percent.

"The teacher was not upset but gently gave advice and asked me to do it again. It was only after a while that I realized I had miscalculated from the beginning," Trang said. Meanwhile, Ngan remembers most about making mistakes in the material synthesis process and survey results.

After failures, both encouraged each other to continue trying, to find and overcome their own mistakes. Gradually, Trang and Ngan became more passionate about their research.

Together, the two friends concentrated their credit registration schedule on the first 1-2 days of the week, focusing on their classes and handling their work right in class, reviewing in the evening. In addition, Trang and Ngan tried to complete their individual and group assignments as quickly as possible to save time for research. On the remaining days, they both went to the lab from morning until 8 pm, including Saturday and Sunday. In the summer, the two female students were often in the lab as well.

When the experimental results became clear, Trang and Ngan were guided by their teacher on how to write a report, translate technical terms into English and present a similar manuscript for international publication. At this stage, both of them did not encounter many difficulties due to their regular practice of English.

After more than a year, the two female students were co-authors of the first international publication. The topic was the modification of the surface of rice husk nanosilica materials with commercial charged polymers and proteins to treat antibiotics. In her final year of university, Trang was the main author of a Q1 international publication on the removal of antibiotics from wastewater using nanosilica after surface modification with self-synthesized positively charged polymers. This was also the main result of the female student's bachelor's thesis.

At the same time, both won a series of scholarships from the school and businesses, first prize in school-level scientific research, and were admitted to the Party from their first year. Trang graduated from university with a grade point average (GPA) of 3.55/4, ranking first in the Advanced Chemistry class. Meanwhile, Ngan was the valedictorian of the Pharmaceutical Chemistry major with a GPA of 3.66. With this result, both were admitted directly to the Analytical Chemistry master's program.

"Everyone was surprised because neither of their families was in the research profession," Ngan recalled. The female student comes from a farming family, while Trang's parents are civil servants. Both saw this as an opportunity to continue pursuing their passion for research, the main direction of which is to treat water and waste environments using new, high-performance nanomaterials. Trang and Ngan explained that in Vietnam, there is a situation of indiscriminate use of antibiotics, while there is no advanced machinery system to treat residual antibiotics in wastewater. If these substances are present in domestic water, users may experience drug resistance due to passive absorption.

"These studies will help eliminate antibiotic residues and toxic medical waste in water. The efficiency of the studies is high, over 85%, so I think it can be applied to the medical field and environmental pollution treatment," Trang said.

Dr. Duc said that although the research of the two female students is very basic, it has high potential for application when successfully tested on hospital wastewater and industrial wastewater samples with good results.

He assessed that both of them had a passion for science and a desire to contribute. Realizing this early, Dr. Duc grouped them together so they could progress together.

"The number of citations for each student is over 100, which is a very rare level for graduate students preparing to receive their master's degrees. I myself finished my PhD in Japan after about 3 years to reach this index," said Mr. Duc.

Trang and Ngan said they were like any other college couple. Even though they were busy with work in the lab, the two female students still often went out to eat and have fun together.

"Doing research is not as dry as people think. In the lab, we help each other with experiments, schoolwork, share life problems, and encourage each other to improve," Trang and Ngan shared.

Currently, Ngan is urgently completing her application to study for a PhD in Chemistry in Japan with a full scholarship from the Japanese government (MEXT scholarship). Trang will do research in Vietnam.

"We will study and research more, then work as researchers in institutes, or lecturers to guide students in the future," Ngan said.

According to VnExpress