Over a 70-year career, Huynh Phuong Dong received numerous honours, including the State Award for Literature and Arts in 2007 ...

Aided by her blond hair, blue eyes and fluency in German, she crossed enemy lines to spy on Germany for the French. She later received the Legion of Honor.

As American bombers flew overhead, pioneering professor Hoang Xuan Sinh completed her thesis by the light of a kerosene lamp ...