Olafs quest 2ds

Prof. Dr. Duong Khac Trung emerges as a noted name among Vietnamese academia in 2020, as he was appointed to the research chair position of the UK’s renowned Royal Academy of Engineering (RAENG) to study the next chapter of telecommunication advances, including 6G development. As the COVID-19 pandemic has yet to be kept under control in the UK where he currently lives, Duong Quang Trung finally spared some time out of his schedule to sit down with Tuoi Tre Newspaper and unpack his story as a Vietnamese scientist who achieved groundbreaking feats at another country. The road to 6G Each year, the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering (RAENG) appoints esteemed scientists pursuing radical research topics into their coveted Research Chairs and Senior Research Fellows positions, which allows them to establish world-leading research teams and work on their study in five years using grants from the RAENG. Only four Research Chair spots were awarded in 2020 for works in antimicrobial resistance, reducing energy use and emissions from compressors, developing AI-powered dialogue systems and 6G networks, the last of which was an effort led by Duong Quang Trung. For the time being, the world is still making its entrance into 5G technology, with 5G network coverages remain scarce, concentrating mostly in Europe, North America and selected locales of Asia. In the meantime, multiple research efforts, including the work of Trung and his associates, are sketching the outlines for 6G, the next-gen mobile communications. According to Trung, a cellular system must undergo a long theoretical research phase before its commercial rollout, an example being the first research efforts for 5G that dated back over 10 years ago. As demands for communications in industries and personal uses progress, a new cellular network will emerge every 10 years to satisfy it, Trung denoted. For now, the research groups are predicting tech applications to emerge in this decade to develop an …

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As dawn breaks in central Kenya, a helicopter lifts off in a race to find roosting locusts before the sun warms their bodies and sends them on a ravenous flight through farmland. Pilot Kieran Allen begins his painstaking survey from zebra-filled plains and lush maize farms, to dramatic forested valleys and the vast arid expanses further north, his eyes scouring the landscape for signs of the massed insects. The chopper suddenly swings around after a call comes in from the locust war room on the ground: a community in the foothills of Mount Kenya has reported a swarm. "I am seeing some pink in the trees," his voice crackles over the headphones, pointing to a roughly 30-hectare (75-acre) swathe of desert locusts. Reddish-pink in their immature -- and hungriest -- phase, the insects smother the tips of a pine forest. Allen determines that nearby farms are at a safe distance and calls in a second aircraft which arrives in minutes to spray the swarm with pesticide. On the ground, having warmed to just the right temperature, the thick cloud of locusts fills the air with a rustling akin to light rainfall. But a few hours from now, many will be dead from the effect of the poison. Last month alone, Allen logged almost 25,000 kilometres (15,500 miles) of flight -- more than half the circumference of the world -- in his hunt for locusts after a fresh wave of insects invaded Kenya from Somalia and Ethiopia. Like other pilots involved in the operation -- who have switched from their usual business of firefighting, tourism, or rescuing hikers in distress -- he has become an expert on locusts and the dangers they pose. "Those wheat fields feed a lot of the country. It would be a disaster if they got in there," he says pointing to a vast farm in a particularly fertile area of Mount Kenya. Desert locusts cover the tree tops in Meru, Kenya. The insects are pink in this early stage of development - and at their most voracious. Photo: AFP Second …

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For nearly three decades, Canadian entomologist Gard Otis has dedicated himself to the study of behavior patterns in a native Vietnamese honeybee species, as well as to the development of local bee farming talent and technology in the north-central province of Ha Tinh. Otis spent 36 years as a professor at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, where he specialized in honeybee biology and behavior, insect ecology, and forest entomology. The distinguished researcher currently serves as an adjunct professor at the university’s School of Environmental Sciences. A key area of Otis’s research and interest is focused on ‘murder hornets,’ commonly known as Asian giant hornets ( Vespa mandarinia ). While working on National Geographic Society-funded beekeeping projects in north-central Vietnam several years ago, Prof. Otis began conducting extensive research on Vespa soror , a sister species to Vespa mandarinia. Both hornets share similarities in size and behavior, including their tendency to attack and even ‘slaughter’ honeybee colonies. In a video call with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper in late January, the professor proudly shared the results of a recent study he undertook with the help of associates in Vietnam and the U.S., during which he discovered a collective defense strategy adopted by honeybees ( Apis cerana ) against swarms of Vespa soror . The article was published late last year in PLOS ONE, a peer-reviewed journal launched by PLOS -- a nonprofit, Open Access publisher which empowers researchers to accelerate progress in science and medicine. According to the article, honeybees in Asia have evolved under predatory pressure from social wasps in the genus Vespa , the most formidable of which are the giant hornets that attack colonies in groups, kill adult defenders, and prey on broods. The team’s documentation revealed for the first time that, in response to attacks by V. soror, which frequently land on their way into nests, …

[Read more...] about Canadian professor on tireless quest to develop Vietnam’s beekeeping industry