Hoang Minh Hieu Nguyen has been recognised for his contributions to and potential in healthcare and science in Asia.
Being named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia is an honour, but what has stayed with me most is not the recognition itself but the opportunity to inspire other young advocates across Asia.
Hoang Minh Hieu Nguyen
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been featured as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia: Healthcare & Science list.
Hoang Minh Hieu Nguyen is one of 18 scientists and researchers who were selected as representatives of “a new generation of bright minds who are on the cusp of scientific breakthroughs and discoveries at home and abroad”. He was singled out for his contribution to a paper published by Science in 2025 that discussed how certain gene mutations may cause cancer and for his role as an advisor to the World Telehealth Initiative, a California-based nonprofit that tries to bring long-distance medical services to underserved communities globally.
Hieu [2023], who is currently a Knight-Hennessy Scholar studying medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, did his MPhil in Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge.
He has been making a positive impact in the healthcare field for many years. At 16, he founded the first and largest student-run organisation advancing health and education for ethnic minority communities in Lam Dong (Vietnam).
In the laboratory, he has co-authored publications in Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Biomolecules. In addition to his research on cancer, his work, which has earned him numerous awards, includes engineering the first animal model of human extrachromosomal DNA and identifying a novel molecular mechanism that can lead to full reversal of early-onset Parkinson’s disease.
Beyond the lab, Hieu translates medical innovation into bridging access to care as a Social Entrepreneurship Fellow at Middlebury and through his role at World Telehealth Initiative where he established Kenya’s first telemedicine system that provides life-saving medical services to rural Bomet County (Kenya), where such services were once unreachable.
Hieu says: “Being named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia is an honour, but what has stayed with me most is not the recognition itself but the opportunity to inspire other young advocates across Asia. Since the announcement, I have received messages from students who see themselves in my work and who share a commitment to confronting health inequity and advancing cancer research with our region. At a time when the world can often feel increasingly divided, these conversations remind me that we are the young generation who is eager to serve, to build and to contribute to something larger than itself. They affirm my belief that the mission I have chosen can contribute, in some small way, is working out to make this world a better place!”
