Associate Professor Tran Xuan Bach from Hanoi Medical University has become the first Vietnamese scientist to receive the Noam Chomsky Global Connections Award.

The Noam Chomsky awards ceremony was held at the headquarters of the Society of Transnational Academic Researchers (STAR Scholars Network) in the US on December 8 evening.

Tran Xuan Bach, 36, Vice Head of Department of Health Economics at the Hanoi Medical University was among two people winning the Shining Star Achievement in Research Achievement Award category of the Noam Chomsky Global Connections Awards this year.

Vietnamese professor Tran Xuan Bach

The associate professor’s research interests include the application of epidemiological-economic models to explore the determinants of infectious disease outbreaks, assess nations’ vulnerability and identify cost-effective system and human behavioral responses.

He has extensive experience in research, surveillance and evaluation of global health threats in Asia and the Pacific.

Bach is the winner of numerous international and domestic research awards, including the Hopkins Centre for AIDS Research’s International Research Award and the Dang Van Ngu Award.

He has published over 300 papers in prestigious international journals, including The Lancet, Bulletin of the World Health Organization and AIDS and Behavior.

Bach earned his PhD at Canada’s Alberta University in 2011 and was also presented with the Early Career Award by the university in 2017. In 2019, Johns Hopkins University officially appointed him as its professor.

In 2020, the Noam Chomsky Global Connections Awards presented one prize for the North Star Medal of Lifetime Achievement category, two for Shining Star Achievement in Research Achievement and one for Rising Star Emerging Scholar Certificate.

STAR Scholars Network is an international forum of scholars that advances global social mobility through research and advocacy. In August 2020 Professor Noam Chomsky, dubbed "the father of modern linguistics," gave his name to the Global Connections Awards.