Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim (born 7 August 1987) is a German chemist,

science communicator Science communication encompasses a wide range of activities that connect science and society. Common goals of science communication include informing non-experts about scientific findings, raising the public awareness of and interest in sci ...

, television presenter and

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

. In June 2020 she was elected to the senate of the

Max Planck Society The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...

Life and education

Nguyen-Kim was born in 1987 in

Heppenheim Heppenheim (Bergstraße) () is the seat of Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany, lying on the Bergstraße on the edge of the Odenwald. It is best known for being the birthplace of Sebastian Vettel, a four-time Formula One World Champion and ...

, Hesse; her parents are from

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...

, her father is also a

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

. She completed the in 2006 in

Hemsbach Hemsbach () is a town with approximately 12,000 inhabitants in the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It belongs to the European Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region (Lower Neckar region until 20 May 2003 and Rhine-Neckar-Odenwald reg ...

. She studied at the

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It has been named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. it had approximately 32,000 students enrolled in around 100 a ...

and

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

. She worked on her doctorate at

RWTH Aachen University RWTH Aachen University (), in German ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen'', is a German public research university located in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With more than 47,000 students enrolled in 144 study prog ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, and the

University of Potsdam The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, northeastern Germany. The university is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace o ...

; completing it in 2017. She rejected a job offer from

BASF BASF SE (), an initialism of its original name , is a European Multinational corporation, multinational company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Ge ...

to focus on science communication. She is married and has a daughter born in January 2020.

Career

Nguyen-Kim started the YouTube channel ''The Secret Life Of Scientists'' in 2015. In 2016, she began another channel, ''maiLab'' (originally named ''schönschlau''), which is funded by German public broadcasters ARD and

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

and as of September 2020 has over 1 million subscribers. She published popular videos about the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

on ''maiLab'' which made it into German YouTube trends and reached several million viewers within a short time. She also contributed a widely noticed commentary on this topic in the German news programme ''

Tagesthemen ''Tagesthemen'' () is one of Germany's main daily television news magazines, presented by journalists Helge Fuhst, Aline Abboud, Ingo Zamperoni and . Second only to the 20:00 '' Tagesschau'' ("Review of the Day") ''Tagesthemen'' ("Issues of the ...

'' ( ARD) and was invited as an expert in various talk shows. On German television, Nguyen-Kim presents the science show ''Quarks'' (

WDR Fernsehen WDR Fernsehen is a German free-to-air television network owned and operated by Westdeutscher Rundfunk and serving North Rhine-Westphalia. It is one of the seven regional "third programmes" television stations that are offered within the federal ...

) since 2018, alongside

Ralph Caspers Ralph Caspers (born 18 January 1972 in Pasir Panjang, Borneo, Indonesia) is a German television presenter, author, screenwriter, and actor. Biography Ralph Caspers was born in the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo, where his parents had ...

. With

Harald Lesch Harald Lesch (born 28 July 1960) is a German physicist, astronomer, natural philosopher, author, television presenter, professor of physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and professor of natural philosophy at the Munich Un ...

and she presents the online video series '. Since October 2021, she presents a TV show called ''MAITHINK X – Die Show'' on

ZDFneo ZDFneo is a German free-to-air television channel, programmed for an audience aged 25 to 49 to complement the primarily older-skewing main channels of public broadcasters ZDF and ARD. It replaced ZDF's documentary channel ZDFdokukanal on 1 N ...

. Her book '' Chemistry for Breakfast'' (, ), published in March 2019, has been on the ''

Spiegel Spiegel is German, Yiddish, and Dutch for "mirror". More specifically, it may refer to: Publications * ''Der Spiegel'', a weekly German magazine * ''Der Spiegel'' (website), the online sibling of ''Der Spiegel'' Political * Spiegel scandal, a 1 ...

'' bestseller list since November 2019.

Awards

* Grimme Online Award (2018) * Georg von Holtzbrinck Prize for Science Journalism (2018) * German Web Video Award (2018) * Journalist of the Year (2018) *

Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award The Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award is a German award for excellence in journalism. It was first awarded in 1995. The award is named for the German journalist Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Hanns Joachim "Hajo" Friedrichs (15 March 1927 – 28 March ...

(2019) *

Federal Cross of Merit The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

(2020) * Heinz Oberhummer Award for Science Communication (2020) *

Grimme-Preis The Grimme-Preis (Grimme Award), formerly known as the Adolf-Grimme-Preis, is one of the most prestigious German television awards. It is named after the first general director of Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, Adolf Grimme. The Grimme Institute ...

(2021) for journalistic contributions on COVID-19

Publications

* *
See entry
at

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen-Kim, Mai Thi 1987 births Living people People from Bergstraße (district) Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni RWTH Aachen University alumni Harvard University alumni University of Potsdam alumni German people of Vietnamese descent 21st-century German women scientists 21st-century German chemists German women television journalists German YouTubers ZDF people Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany German science communicators