When Tien Huynh was born during the Vietnam war, it was an unusual arrival. Her mother and aunt were fleeing from gunfire and Tien’s aunt hopped on her bicycle and put Tien’s heavily pregnant mum on the back. The aunt struggled with peddling as guns went off around them. After a while, the pedalling became easier and the aunt thought she had struck a good rhythm. But the reason why the bike felt lighter was because Tien’s mum had fallen off the back. The fall made Tien arrive into the world early. She was so tiny, she only weighed a kilogram. The doctor advised Tien’s mum to name her straight away because she probably wouldn’t survive. She called her daughter Tien which means angel or fairy.

But Tien did survive. Amid war, the little girl moved through her world with a special attraction to anything that grew. Flowers and the exotic fruits like rambutan. One day, the boy who was paid to walk her to school lost her along the way. Tien wandered into someone’s garden and wove a garland of flowers for her hair. Another time, nearby conflict caused the lights to go out. In the darkness, Tien ate nearly two kilos of rambutans. She was sick from a stomach ache afterwards!

The Vietnam war meant it was impossible for Tien’s family to stay in their country. Her dad was a high-ranking navy officer navy officer in charge of navigation and he was able to flee the country to prepare the way for his wife and two daughters. Using every penny they had, Tien’s mum bought a ticket on a boat to take them to Australia. She could only afford one seat and sat both her daughters on her knees. The space was so cramped that every time a wave crashed against the boat, Tien would be jolted up and bang her head on the roof. The dangerous journey included malaria and sea pirates. The boat nearly sunk, was rescued by tankers and eventually stranded on an island in Indonesia. They were all bruised, sore and sick.

Tien’s dad was able to seek asylum in Australia and apply for his family to join him. Tien was six years old when she started school in Australia. She didn’t speak the language and had to pick it up as she went along. Lucky, Tien was a curious child, full of questions about her world. Why does the sun come on? Who turns it off at night? Her family didn’t have much of a garden, so on her long walk to school each day in Footscray, Tien would pick flowers and leaves. She loved drawing them or tracing them and pressing flowers to examine how they were all different. She made books of plant drawings.

But for all her love of plants and flowers, at school she found botany subjects boring. They were all theory whereas her mind screamed for the practical side. In the end, she would have to wait to go to university before botany got really exciting. There, Tien met an amazing scientist called Professor Ann Lawrie. The professor was patient and kind and whenever Tien asked a question – and she asked lots – Professor Lawrie would stop what she was doing and help Tien find an answer.

The great thing about Science is that there are many fields to study. Tien was drawn to plant pathology and environmental toxicology and studied orchids. She was fascinated by their unique architecture that tricked insects and fungi into working for them. Her studies took Tien to other countries and she even got to meet David Attenborough.

From orchids to cancer, Tien’s research led her to investigate which plants could be used in cancer treatments. After that, Tien became fascinated in agricultural waste. She wondered if the bits that get thrown away could be used. One example was the coffee bean. By the time it becomes coffee, half the coffee bean becomes waste. Tien wondered if that waste could be used and upcycled into a healing product. Her research could make a huge difference to both medicine and recycling.

From the tiny angel baby born in the middle of a war, Tien never imagined where her interest in plants would take her.

Dr Tien Huynh is now a senior lecturer at RMIT and a passionate advocate for environmental sustainability. She has been acknowledged with the highly esteemed Superstars of STEM award; a program that recognises the top 30 female scientists excelling in their field by Science and Technology Australia.

Dr Tien Huynh loves using technology and she recommends the free PlantNet app which allows you to identify plants by photographing them with your phone. All the photographs are collected and available to scientists around the world. PlantNet also helps young people identify and understand the different types of plants: flowering plants, trees, grasses, conifers, ferns, vines, wild salads or cacti.

Tien believes that walks are much more interesting when you can look at and recognise plants.