Born in Yen Ho Commune in the central province of Ha Tinh, Quy has been very close to nature since he was a child. He had a great passion for birds and spent hours watching them at them and listening to their songs.
His passion steered him towards the path of ornithology. Now he is a lecturer at the Biology Faculty of the based Hanoi-University of Natural Sciences.
He has become famous for his work and has won several international awards. In 2003, he was the first Vietnamese and only the second from Asia to receive the Green Planet Award from the ASAHI organisation of Japan.
Nine years later, he was among just three scientists awarded the Midori Prize for Biodiversity.
He was also named among 35 Heroes of the Environment by Time Magazine.
One of Quy's most noteworthy achievements was the discovery and study of a rare species of pheasant in the Ke Go area of Ha Tinh Province, which surprised many scientists in the world. The scientific name for the species is Lophura hatinhensis, but is more commonly known as Vo Quy’s pheasant.
One of his great books was about the classification of bird species in Vietnam, which was written during wartime. The book, comprised of thousands of pages, describes 740 species and over 1,000 subspecies of birds endemic to Vietnam and has been highly appreciated by scientists in the world.
He was also actively studying the aftermath of agent orange (AO)/dioxin sprayed by US troops during wartime in southern Vietnam. He devised methods to restore two million hectares of forest destroyed by bombs and AO.
To date, Quy has received nine international environmental awards. He has donated most of the money he earned from the prizes to charity programmes.
He decided to grant JPY50 million (USD492,569) to a programme to train environmental cadres in Vietnam. His decision surprised ASAHI leader.
“This money belongs to me, so I want to use it in my own way,” he said.
He has also donated USD100,000 of the MIDORI Prize and USD150,000 of the Prize for the Environment given by the University of Michigan to charitable programmes.
In recent years, he has granted many prizes and scholarships to students at the University of Natural Sciences’ Biology Department, as well as students and teachers at many schools in his hometown in Ha Tinh Province.
He has also funded research and teaching at the Centre for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies (CRES).
“I feel lucky. My family always agrees with my decisions to donate money to charitable operations. I hope I can maintain long-term scholarships for more excellent students for their great contributions to environmental protection,” he added.
