Keeping the flame of passion

Ha’s mother is my family’s neighbor at Tran Nguyen Han ward, Bac Giang city. Ha was well-known for her intelligence and good study results since she was a child. Her old mother shows great pride whenever talking about her beautiful talented daughter.

Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Thi Ha (third from right) receives Kovalevskaia award.

As she passed the exam into the mathematics specialized class, the school for gifted students, she was granted scholarship to reduce burden for her family. After finishing her studying at the faculty of Chemistry, Hanoi General University, Ha continued studying for master degree at Adelaide University in Australia.

Ha was lucky to be accompanied and supported by her husband to bring their children to live with her in the foreign country during three years studying the environmental chemistry abroad. After returning Vietnam, Ha worked for the Faculty of Environmental Science, University of Science, Hanoi National University where she performs both teaching and researching duties.

According to Ha, for a good teaching, the lecturers should do research projects to update new knowledge and practicality for students. The projects are distinct from each other while sometimes researchers have to do the experimental studies several times requiring persistence for the passion.

Contributing to a fresh environment

“Air pollution is a global issue. Environmental hygiene and water resources in many localities of Vietnam do not meet standards causing epidemics and badly affecting quality of life”, said Ha.

This fact urged her to share her knowledge to help people understand the causes and guide them the easiest methods to improve and monitor water quality of the ponds and lakes and protect the surrounding environment.

One of Ha’s outstanding research projects is retrieving metal from mud of the electroplating water treatment system to produce colored ceramic glazes and construction materials.

This project has been piloted in some production facilities in Bat Trang and Hung Yen gaining positive results. Particularly, the colored glaze products are qualified enough to produce normal pottery products at low cost while the brick product is solid, load-bearing and environmentally friendly. As a result, the project was awarded the prize “Environmental Action on Vietnam Innovation Day” by the World Bank.

Besides, Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Thi Ha has carried out a number of practical projects such as utilizing mud to produce colored glazes and waste tissues for mushroom cultivation, utilizing oyster shelters and activated cotton dust to separate heavy metals and studying to handle sewage from tapioca processing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

As a leader of the female team in environmental technologies, Ha headed directed her colleagues to evaluate and seek solutions for environmental pollution issues related to sewage, and solid wastes especially proper technological solutions for small production facilities and trade villages which are limited in investment capacity. This is the reason why their group of projects including 98 scientific theses over 10 years focuses on the common issues of waste treatment and utilization and environment analysis and evaluation.

Thanks to the practicality of their projects, Ha and her colleagues of the Environmental Technologies were awarded Kovalevskaia award 2018 in March.

In addition, this female lecturer has gained outstanding results in her main duty of training high-quality human resources.

Although she has gone to many localities in Vietnam and even other countries for studying and teaching and now she is living in a big city, Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Thi Ha expresses her special sentiments to the homeland of Bac Giang. This scientist hopes to have opportunities to contribute to improving environment in her hometown especially disadvantaged areas where fail to access to clean water.

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Vi Le Thanh