I am a research scientist at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA) and a doctoral student at the Mathematical Modeling Laboratory, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, Japan.
My work joins plant breeding with data science. At VNUA I breed sweet and specialty corn, from inbred-line development to multi-location trials; five hybrids I co-developed have been recognized for circulation in Vietnam, and four of them are protected. An M.S. in plant physiology at ICAR-IARI, India, and doctoral research in mathematical modeling at Kyushu University, Japan, added the quantitative half: image-based phenotyping, multivariate selection, machine learning, and satellite remote sensing. I have applied these tools to maize, rice, wheat, soybean, quinoa, sweetpotato, taro, tomato, melon, and coffee, working with breeders, physiologists, modelers, and social scientists in Vietnam, India, Japan, Argentina, and Denmark. My Ph.D. research applies AI, big data, and digital technologies to breeding and improving crop varieties adapted to climate change, to extending value chains, and to sustainable production, with coffee as the model crop. The thread through all of it is practical: a model earns its place only when it changes a decision, such as which parents to cross, which hybrid to advance, or where a crop needs watching.
I have worked at VNUA since 2015 and serve as Deputy Head of the Department of Vegetable and Flower Research, Institute of Biology and Agricultural Technology. I lead VNUA’s Strong Research Group on potential tuber crops, led a VNUA project on image-based phenotyping through to completion (2021–2023), and work on national, ministry, and Hanoi city breeding grants, including a Ministry of Agriculture and Environment task to breed mini waxy corn for the northern provinces from 2027. I also build open analysis tools, such as the CropGenoViz R Shiny app, so that partners can run the same analyses on their own trials.
40+ peer-reviewed publications · 5 co-developed corn hybrids recognized for circulation (VNUA141, VNUA191, VNUA168, MH81, FC369), 4 of them also protected · 14 awards, commendations and scholarships, including two government scholarships, an ICCR master’s scholarship (Government of India) and a JDS Ph.D. scholarship (JICA, Japan), and a Certificate of Merit from the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment).
Research interests
- Precision breeding: markers, doubled haploids, genomic prediction and image-based selection in one edible maize breeding program, selecting for eating quality, yield, and nitrogen and phosphorus use efficiency; it builds on M.S. research on nitrogen use efficiency in rice at ICAR-IARI.
- Crop breeding: sweet corn and other specialty corn hybrids for northern Vietnam, and multi-trait selection of germplasm in rice and sweetpotato.
- Mathematical modeling: statistical and machine-learning models for predicting crop traits, yield, and production.
- Phenomics and genomics: image-based, high-throughput phenotyping and SSR markers for evaluating germplasm, and genomic selection in sweetpotato.
- Remote sensing and computer vision: satellite and UAV imagery and machine learning for mapping, monitoring, and forecasting Robusta coffee production.
Research programs
- Purple, waxy and specialty sweet corn breeding for northern Vietnam at VNUA. I am a team member on its national, ministry and Hanoi city grants.
- Image-based phenomics and breeding decision support: a VNUA project on image-based phenotyping that I led as principal investigator (2021–2023), and a review in Ecological Genetics and Genomics (2026) that proposes the “breeding digital twin” framework.
- Sweetpotato and other tuber crops: I lead VNUA’s Strong Research Group on potential tuber crops (NCM2024-39).
- Mini waxy corn breeding: a Ministry of Agriculture and Environment task approved in 2026 (Decision No. 3083/QĐ-BNNMT), on which I am a team member.
- Development of AI-driven Solutions for Coffee Cultivation in Dak Lak Region, Vietnam (ベトナムダクラク地域コーヒー栽培におけるAI主導型ソリューションの開発), my Ph.D. dissertation at Kyushu University. It applies AI, big data, and digital technologies to climate-adapted crop improvement, value chains, and sustainable production, with coffee as the model crop; the work so far maps and forecasts Robusta coffee production in Dak Lak with satellite remote sensing and machine learning.
Background
I earned my B.S. in Crop Science (Advanced Program) from the Vietnam National University of Agriculture (2015) and my M.S. in Agricultural Science (Plant Physiology) from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI), New Delhi (2021), under an ICCR scholarship from the Government of India. I began my career as a researcher at VNUA in 2015, working on corn breeding. I have published in iScience, Plant Stress, Frontiers in Plant Science, Ecological Genetics and Genomics and other journals.
Contact
- Email: ntduc11@gmail.com / ntduc@vnua.edu.vn
- Google Scholar · ORCID · ResearchGate · GitHub · VNUA Faculty Profile