Mathematician & Computer Scientist
Who is Dang Thi Oanh?
Before she was Doctor Dang, head of the Division of Science, she was a little girl growing up in a tribal village in Vietnam. Dang Thi Oanh lived in a house with a roof made of leaves and no electricity. She remembers studying by the light of an oil lamp.
It was this humble beginning that motivated Dang to work her wait to become the head of the Division of Science at Thái Nguyên University of Information and Communications Technology in Vietnam. “I had to escape the hunger and poverty. If you study, you don’t have to work on the farm. You don’t have to gather dry wood in the jungle,” she said.
Doctor Dang has been recognized for developing algorithms that were too complicated for computers to solve.
Today, she is a mother of two and mentors students! “It is important that the world sees how women are contributing to the 21st century Vietnamese economy through science research,” said Oanh, “I am proud to be a part of this.”
3 Things We Love About Dang Thi Oanh:
- One of twelve children, she recognized that learning/studying would help her escape poverty.
- She was mentored by her sister, a high school mathematics teacher, and now she pays it forward with her students.
- She wants the world to see how women are contributing to the 21st century, especially in developing countries.
Work Cited
Vietnamese Mathematician Wins Elsevier Foundation Award