Nam-Trung Nguyen

Nam-Trung Nguyen (Vietnamese: Nguyễn Nam Trung; born on 14 April 1970) is a Vietnamese-Australian researcher in the fields of microfluidics and nanofluidics. He is notable for his work on nerve agent detectors, PCR, micromixers, droplet-based microfluidics, micro-magnetofluidics, liquid marbles and micro-elastofluidics. He is currently a professor and director of Queensland Micro and Nanotechnology Centre at Griffith University. He was a former associate professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Nguyen is a Fellow of ASME and a Senior Member of IEEE.

Early life Nguyen was born in 1970 in Hanoi, to an engineer father and schoolteacher mother. He started school in 1975, the year the Vietnam war ended. After graduating from high school, he took the entrance exam for Hanoi University of Science and Technology. With a high score in this examination, he was awarded a scholarship for overseas undergraduate education in the former Eastern Bloc. As one of the top-ranked candidates, he could select which country to go to. His father, an engineer trained in the Soviet Union, advised him to go to East Germany. He was also the Director of the successful part-time education program of the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at NTU. From 2000 to 2013, he led a competitive and independent research group at NTU. In 2013, he joined Griffith University in Australia and has been serving as a Professor and the Director of Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre. Nguyen has served as a member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts from 2014 to 2017

Nguyen's work focuses on advancing fundamental fluid physics in microscale and applying those advancements to produce practical engineering solutions in the form of lab-on-a-chip and point-of-care diagnostics. He has three US patents (US7975531B2, US7736788B2, US7534097B2) covering microfluidics applications such as fuel cells and fluid instrumentation. Nguyen has established and developed a number of enabling technologies and fluid handling concepts, with international recognition particularly in polymeric micromachining, micro acoustofluidics, micro mixing and micro magnetofluidics. Nguyen has published over 470 articles in international journals, 9 books, 24 book chapters. He has supervised 36 PhD students to successful completion. The 2020 edition of the Research Special Report of The Australian recognized Nguyen as an Australia's research leader in analytical chemistry, and one of the top 17 scholars in chemical and material sciences.

In 2023, Nguyen was awarded with the Australian Laureate Fellowship, the most prestigious research fellowship of Australia. Nguyen is an elected Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. His international reputation and leadership led to roles with key microfluidics and micro/nanotechnology journals of the field, including Editor-in-Chief (Micromachines), Associate Editor (Microfluidics and Nanofluidics), Biomedical Microdevices, Journal of Sensors and Sensor Systems, Journal of Science: Advanced Materials and Devices, Technologies and advisory board member of Lab on a Chip.

Honors Nguyen is the First Runner Up of Inaugural ProSPER.Net-Scopus Young Scientist Awards in Sustainable Development in 2009 and the Runner Up of ASAIHL-Scopus Young Scientist Awards in 2008.

The following is the full list of his achievements: 2024, Sir George Julius Medal, Engineers Australia 2023, ARC Australian Laureate Fellow 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Australia's research leader in analytical chemistry 2018, Vice Chancellor's Research Excellence Award for Research Leadership 2017, Pro Vice Chancellor's Research Excellence Award for Research Leadership 2014, Member of Australian Research Council College of Experts 2012, SMART Faculty Fellow, Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology

Selected bibliography