A well-known Vietnamese-Australian inventor has been nominated as a candidate for the title “Australian of the Year 2012”, while a young woman has been chosen to introduce a software application for a government tourism website. 

24-year-old Natalie Tran, whose full Vietnamese name is Tran Dinh To Han

According to Australian media, the results of the vote for Australian of the Year Awards will be announced on January 26, 2012, which is the country’s National Day.

Over the past 20 years, Dr Hung, who has been honored as “the teacher of inventions,” has invented many medical devices that have become very useful for patients.

One of Hung’s most outstanding inventions is his revolutionary autonomous wheelchair, the Aviator, which Anthill SMART 100 ranked third in its list of top 100 Australian innovations for 2011.

The list was compiled by a panel of 100 expert judges who were looking for novel, innovative ideas that had the potential to be commercially successful by meeting the needs of a specific target market.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hung, "the teacher of inventions" (Photo: Hills Shire Times)

Meanwhile Natalie Tran, whose full Vietnamese name is Tran Dinh To Han, 24, who is called Australia’s Youtube Queen by national media, has been invited by Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to introduce Smartraveller, a mobile application software programme for a tourism website of the Australian Government.

In comments on the tourism software, Natalie said, “I want to prove to everyone that the real world and the virtual world always go along with each other."

Natalie, who lives in Sydney, was chosen for the position thanks to the popularity of the images on her blog, which has become a favorite of roughly 1 million fans all over the world.

The 24-year-old was also selected in 2010 as one of the 100 Most Beautiful Faces by American movie magazine Independent Critic.

Furthermore, travel and Internet communication are two favorite hobbies of the young woman. Therefore, it is appropriate to choose her as the face of Australia’s new tourist products, Rudd said.

Natalie Tran and Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd (Photo: Foreignminister.gov)