BERLIN –The Vietnamese-German Nguyen Kim Mai Thi has won first prize in the 2012 Falling Walls Lab contest at Cologne, Germany for her research work entitled Breaking the Wall of The Human Cell.

The winner of the Falling Walls Lab Cologne Nguyen Kim Mai Thi during her presentation: "Breaking the Wall of The Human Cell". File Photo

Mai Thi is currently working in nano medical research at the RWTH Aachen, a research university of technology in Germany. With her research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she developed new methods of infiltrating cancer cells with the use of nano-transporters. Her breakthrough makes it possible to design a transport vessel which sabotages only affected cells, leaving healthy cells unharmed.

Doctor Peter Pfeiffer, a member of the contest's jury, said with her passion, Thi has introduced her complicated research work in an easy to understand way, so that she has successfully persuaded all members of the jury.

The Falling Walls Lab is organised by the Falling Walls Foundation in cooperation with A.T. Kearney, the global management consulting firm. It is a new challenging, inspiring and interdisciplinary format for young bright minds. It offers an opportunity to young academics and professionals to present their breakthroughs in three minutes before the jury of established individuals in the fields of economics and science in Cologne, Zurich, Vienna, and Munich.

With the first prize at Cologne, Thi will attend the contest's final round in Berlin in August and take a seat at the Falling Walls Conference on November where she will introduce her work before 700 international guests.

Thi has a history of academic success. In 1996, she won the first prize of Jugend Msiziert contest. She said next year she will make a trip to Viet Nam and visit her parents' homelands in Hue and Nha Trang. -- VNS