Thang Hoa San (Vietnamese: Thang Hoa Sân, Chinese: 湯華燊;[1] born 28 August 1954) is an Australian chemist of Chinese-Vietnamese background.
San Thang | |
|---|---|
| Born | 28 August 1954 Saigon, Vietnam |
| Nationality | Vietnamese |
| Citizenship | Australian |
| Alma mater | Griffith University |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Polymer chemistry |
| Institutions | CSIRO Monash University |
Background
editThang was born in Saigon in 1954 to Chinese parents who migrated to Vietnam in the 1930s.[1] He completed his Bachelor of Science at Saigon University in 1976, and worked as a chemist at SINCO, a sewing machine manufacturer. In 1979, Thang left Vietnam as a refugee from the Vietnam War, and spent five months in a refugee camp in Malaysia before arriving in Brisbane, Australia later in the year.[1] He enrolled at Griffith University where he completed an Honours degree in chemistry and a PhD in organic chemistry.[2]
In 1986, Thang joined the CSIRO, the Australian government's scientific agency. In 1987, he left to join ICI Australia, but returned to CSIRO in 1990.[2] In September 2014, research by Thomson Reuters for their citation laureate prize named Thang as one of a trio of CSIRO scientists (together with Ezio Rizzardo and Graeme Moad) most likely to be contenders for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in co-developing the reversible addition−fragmentation chain-transfer polymerization (RAFT) process. The three had shared the ATSE Clunies-Ross Award earlier that year.[3] However, in December that year, Thang revealed that he had been laid off by the organisation in September, but had continued to work there unpaid in an honorary position.[4] He later worked as a professor for Beijing University of Chemical Technology, and in May 2015, joined Monash University as a professor of chemistry and was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.[5]
References
edit- ^ a b c "Happy Weekend with Professor San Thang". SBS Radio. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
- ^ a b "San Thang". CSIROpedia. CSIRO. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
- ^ Smith, Bridie (25 September 2014). "CSIRO scientists Graeme Moad, San Thang and Ezio Rizzardo named as Nobel prize contenders". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
- ^ "A lesson in humility from sacked CSIRO scientist". ABC News. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
- ^ "Researcher elected as new Fellow to Australian Academy of Science". Monash University. Retrieved 11 June 2018.