Dr. Pham Anh Tuan is currently a member of the editorial board of the prestigious international journal Geosynthetics International (Q1). In 2025, he won two major awards: the international prize for “Emerging Star in Geotechnical Engineering” and the Golden Globe Award for Science and Technology awarded by the central youth union.
These impressive achievements confirm the position of a Vietnamese intellectual on the international stage. For him, these are just steps on a path of continuous learning. It is the persevering journey of a young man who started from nothing, overcoming his limitations thanks to an intense desire to reach the heights of knowledge.
Dr. Pham Anh Tuan (second from the left) and other young scientists receiving the Golden Globe Award in 2025.
Dr. Pham Anh Tuan is currently working at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden, a leading institution in engineering, science, and architecture that collaborates closely with businesses and ranks among the top universities in Northern Europe and the world.
He was the sixth child of a poor family in the Quang Binh province (now Quang Tri province), a central region of Vietnam plagued by sun, winds, and natural disasters. His childhood was marked by the hardships endured by his parents, who saved every penny to ensure their children could go to school. These challenges instilled in the young man a will and determination of steel; education represented the best chance for him to change his fate.
«During those two years, I practically lived and slept with the ideas in this article. Even during class, my mind was often preoccupied with unanswered questions, and I simply wished the course would end quickly so I could return to my research laboratory and tackle these ideas», he recounted.
Throughout his studies, Tuan was constantly busy: attending classes and conducting research during the day, and tutoring in the evenings to support himself. Additionally, he actively sought scholarships to alleviate the financial burden on his family and fulfill his dream of studying abroad.
In 2016, he received several prestigious scholarships to study abroad and chose France as his destination. Since then, he embarked on a journey of learning and research across different countries around the world, marked by remarkable success.
He explained that in the international academic world, the criteria for innovation, research methodology, and scientific idea communication are very strict. «In the beginning, I was quite disoriented, especially when it came to writing scientific articles in English and convincing the international academic community of the value of my research», he shared.
His first international scientific publication focused on a geotechnical study concerning the mechanics of interactions between soils and geosynthetics. It took him almost two years to revise and finalize this article before it was accepted for publication.
Rejections of his articles and periods of creative blockage made him doubt himself. But these experiences allowed the young man to understand that science is a journey of perseverance, discipline, and faith in the path he has chosen.
At the beginning of his scientific research, he was haunted by the fear of lack of novelty. According to him, for a work to be published in the most prestigious journals in science, it must be original, shedding new light on human knowledge. This sometimes can lead young researchers astray. «I often wondered: am I on the right path, or am I just repeating what others have already done?», he remembered.
Dr. Pham Anh Tuan will receive the Golden Globe Award in 2025.
To overcome this fear, Tuan chose to adopt the mindset of a learner. « I told myself that no matter what I did, I just had to try, to explore. It’s only by launching myself that I would truly know where the problem resided», he confessed.
He realized that in science, some questions have persisted for decades without being resolved. What is called “old” is sometimes only so in name. In practice, new approaches are always necessary to continue development.
These works allowed the young Dr. Pham Anh Tuan to receive the Rising Star in Geotechnical Award 2025, recognizing his outstanding contributions to the field of geotechnical engineering on a global scale.
This mindset helped him overcome periods of doubt. He also understood that the scientific journey does not have one decisive turning point. It is a process of accumulating challenges, efforts, and perseverance. «The most important turning point was probably when I stopped comparing myself to others and began to focus fully on scientific research», he stated.
His most exciting research focuses on energy foundations and infrastructure solutions adapted to climate change. The central idea of this research area is to use building foundations – the deep underground part – not only to support loads but also to harness geothermal energy. Thus, a single foundation system can ensure structural stability and provide energy for heating or cooling buildings.
These studies allow for more accurate prediction of the performance and safety of foundation systems when supporting structural loads and exchanging heat with the surrounding soil.
« What I find most significant is that this research orientation contributes not only to the advancement of scientific knowledge but also presents practical application potential. If widely implemented, such solutions could help reduce energy consumption, decrease carbon emissions, and increase infrastructure resilience to increasingly extreme climate conditions», Dr. Tuan explained.
Despite his many scientific achievements, Tuan considers the number of publications and rankings as simple steps in his learning journey. «Every scientific article is the culmination of sleepless nights, deep reflections, and countless revisions. But most importantly, these studies truly contribute to knowledge and society», he shared.
«To the young generation of researchers, my constant message is to cultivate curiosity, perseverance, gratitude, and faith in the path you have chosen. Science is not an easy path, but if we work diligently, relying on our knowledge and relentlessly pursuing essential questions, each of us can contribute to collective development», Dr. Pham Anh Tuan declared.
As a member of the editorial board of an international journal, Tuan has had access to numerous research articles from around the world. This allowed him to see that Vietnamese scientists are fully capable of contributing to global knowledge advancement.
In recent years, the place of Vietnamese intellectuals within the international scientific community has gradually been asserted. However, according to him, science is not only measured by the number of publications but also by innovative research that provides solutions to major societal problems.
Driven by the desire to promote Vietnamese science internationally, Tuan founded Scholarshipidea.net, a platform aiming to share international learning opportunities for students and young Vietnamese people around the world. Additionally, he maintains a wide network of research collaborations in Europe, North America, and Asia, and participates in various research groups in Vietnam, such as the “Intelligent Computing for Civil Engineering” group at Ton Duc Thang University and the I-Star group at Da Nang University.
«I aspire to transform my passion and knowledge into useful solutions for life, and to be a bridge between universities, businesses, and the community so that science is not only appreciated but also put into practice», he declared.
Source: tienphong.vn
