In The Game Podcast

137: From Refugee to Humanitarian Engineer: Dr Anh Tran's Incredible Life Mission

• Nat Cook & Sarah Maxwell • Season 7 • Episode 137

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What drives someone to walk away from a secure academic position to tackle one of the world's most overlooked humanitarian challenges? For Dr. Anh Tran, the answer lies in her remarkable journey—from being conceived in a Vietnamese refugee camp to becoming a humanitarian engineer transforming lives through clean cooking technology.

The daughter of Vietnamese refugees who arrived in Australia with nothing but the clothes on their backs, Dr. Tran carries a profound sense of purpose. Her grandmother's belief that she embodied the spirit of an aunt who didn't survive a similar refugee journey shaped her mission to help displaced people find better lives. This calling crystallized in a pivotal moment inside a smoke-filled cooking hut in a Rwandan refugee camp, where she witnessed firsthand the dangerous conditions women face preparing meals over open fires.

Through her social enterprise Future eCook, Dr. Tran addresses a critical gendered issue in refugee settings—women receive insufficient cooking fuel, forcing dangerous journeys outside camps to gather firewood, exposing them to violence and abuse. Yet despite the severity of this problem, Dr. Tran discovered that when refugee committees were asked about energy priorities, every woman identified cooking while the lone male chairman prioritized electrification. The funding reflected this imbalance: 95% to electrification, just 5% to cooking solutions.

As CEO of Future eCook and manager of the Women in Engineering program at the University of Queensland, Dr. Tran now inspires young women to follow their passions while developing renewable energy-powered cooking solutions. Her personal mantra—"find your passion and follow it, and find someone to pay you for it"—guides her remarkable dual career.

Perhaps most inspiring is how Dr. Tran honors her late father's memory by pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a pilot. Taking her test flight with his photo on the dashboard, she now envisions combining her engineering expertise and flying skills to deliver clean cooking solutions across Africa in electric planes she hopes to build herself.

Ready to feel inspired? Join us for this extraordinary conversation about purpose, service, and the power of following your heart—even when it means taking the road less traveled.

The Podcast's 7th Season
Welcome to In the Game, a podcast where we aim to touch, move and inspire you to what's possible in life. My name is Sarah Maxwell and I am a self-proclaimed relationship engineer. Ever since I was a little girl, I was curious about how people work and how they interact with one another. With a degree in biopsychology representing my country of Canada in beach volleyball. With a degree in biopsychology representing my country of Canada in beach volleyball, retiring from sport into mindset and purpose coaching, I now spend my days running Chatta-box Media, where we aim to story-tell for brands through the medium of podcasting, all while raising an eight-year-old daughter with my partner of 24 years. We are now in season seven of this podcast, featuring a special series on women called who Knew that Was Work aimed at young women who want to broaden their horizon when it comes to career choosing.

Go deeper into the pod and discover incredible stories of changemakers who manifest their dream lives. Gain tangible tools to apply to your own life by scrolling back to that initial season where we were more workbook focused. Have a laugh when we initially were coined the Nat and Sarah show, when my five-time Olympian partner, natalie Cook, and I bantered and had loads of fun interviewing and discovering our common passion individuals who rise to the occasion in life. Okay, now it's time to dive on in to this episode.

Ge...

Audrey:

Hello, my name is Audrey Karen Arthilka and I'm seven years old. I'm Australian by Australian heritage. We wish to acknowledge the land on which this podcast is being recorded, minjim country, the place of the blue water lilies. We are inspired by the world's oldest living culture and seek wisdom from the people who came before us, the Jagra and Turrbal people. We pay our deepest respects to the tradition of storytelling when we share people's stories and we extend our respect. All Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first Australians. Peoples as the first.

Sarah Maxwell :

Australians, welcome to In the Game, a podcast where we aim to touch, move and inspire you to what's possible in life. My name is Sarah Maxwell and I am a self-proclaimed relationship engineer. Ever since I was a little girl, I was curious about how people work and how they interact with one another. With a degree in biopsychology, representing my country of Canada in beach volleyball, retiring from sport into mindset and purpose coaching, I now spend my days running Chattabox Media, where we aim to storytell for brands through the medium of podcasting, all while raising an eight-year-old daughter with my partner of 24 years. We are now in season seven of this podcast, featuring a special series on women called who Knew that Was Work aimed at young women who want to broaden their horizon when it comes to career choosing. Go deeper into the pod and discover incredible stories of changemakers who manifest their dream lives. Gain tangible tools to apply to your own life by scrolling back to that initial season where we were more workbook focused. Have a laugh when we initially were coined the Nat and Sarah show, when my five-time Olympian partner, natalie Cook and I bantered and had loads of fun interviewing and discovering our common passion individuals who rise to the occasion in life. Okay, now it's time to dive on in to this episode.

Sarah Maxwell :

Today I sit down with the powerhouse Dr An Tran, humanitarian engineer, climate tech entrepreneur and CEO of social enterprise Future eCook, aimed at improving health, gender equality and the environment through smart electric cooking services in refugee settings in developing countries. Born to Vietnamese refugees, her dad likes to embarrass her by whispering that she was conceived in a refugee camp. Perhaps that explains her bleeding heart to solve the challenges faced, in particular, by women who find themselves cooking in refugee camps and developing countries. Using the freedoms she was afforded growing up in Australia, she has traveled and worked in the UK, visited many developing countries and now finds herself back working at the faculty at UQ in Brisbane. I love how this PhD in chemical engineering consistently refers to the different roles and projects she serves as my dream job. We have so much to cover in this incredible, inspiring career that looks like it's only just getting started. Welcome on to In the Game podcast. It's only just getting started. Welcome on to In the Game podcast.

Dr Anh Tran:

Thank you, sarah. That's extraordinarily humbling. Thank you, I know that's your life right.

Sarah Maxwell :

You did all Well. You did other things. That's just what we have introduced, and we're going to talk about a lot more today. If you're up for it, I think you're up for it, I'm up for it. Yes, look, I'm admittedly eager to hear all about this future e-cook, but before we track your career timeline, can you give us a snapshot of a week in the life of a humanitarian engineer?

Dr Anh Tran:

Well, currently I actually have two jobs, and three if you count being a mom. So I'm lucky that for five days a week I get to do humanitarian engineering. Of that I get paid for and one of that I am unpaid, and that's perfectly fine because that's where my passion is. So I work for the University of Queensland Women in Engineering program and I get to inspire young women and men about a career in engineering and I get to speak about humanitarian engineering every day. In that respect, we work with students, current engineering female students, the faculty in academia and also, like industries, with engineering companies, to make sure that we develop these really exciting workshops for students, and part of it is inspiring them about the work that I've done in humanitarian engineering.

Dr Anh Tran:

I spend a lot of time doing that on a week. I also have time for my children and that keeps me busy for a week, yeah actually just right.

Sarah Maxwell :

Then I thought when you mentioned that one of them you don't get paid for, yes, it kind of we are going to go there in terms of future e-cook and these women cooking and the problem that you're solving. But I just have to talk about this for one second because you're busy. What do you think of the unpaid labor of mothering it?

Dr Anh Tran:

is a big challenge, right? The idea that it is unpaid and that there's no universal wage for the care and the love and the support that you need to do to raise these amazing human beings is a challenge, and that not only means just looking after them but cooking and cleaning and taking care of and you know the development of young people. It takes a village. It takes a village, and women typically fall more aligned with that burden, not burden, but the joy really, but there is this aspect of it. Yeah, it is.

Sarah Maxwell :

And we will talk about that later, and that's sort of why I wanted to ask you about it, because you and I both experienced that as moms.

Sarah Maxwell :

And yet as you're solving a big worldwide problem in more developing countries, I thought, yeah, let's mention that, let's get that on the on the table too, that there's a it's all levels, there's all different levels going on of this. But thank you for that, because you and I both cook in different ways than know. We possibly use these electric cooking devices that you're going to, that you're really working on with your project. But we have to travel back in time for a sec Before we go there. I'm getting ahead of myself. Life in Australia, being raised by Vietnamese parents, and how has your upbringing shaped the passion you have today for humanitarian work?

Dr Anh Tran:

So, sarah, you touched on my background in your intro and I am a daughter of refugees and I am just so fortunate that we had the opportunity to come to Australia. I was conceived in a refugee camp and yet I was born in Australia and my parents tell me of the story of coming here with the clothes on their backs and nothing else, and so we grew up poor, but I never felt poor. My parents worked very hard and we were always told that we had so many opportunities here and if we just studied hard and did well, then we would be able to give back, if we could, to society when we were old enough to do that. So I want to give back to society. Particularly people are displaced by war or by disasters, and that's that's my aim in life to serve people as a kid, were you like?

Sarah Maxwell :

did you exemplify something where your parents might think it's obvious what you do today? Like? Is there something, maybe a story, that sometimes it's like folklore? You know, you hear it in your family and they all tell this story of um. Is there a story like that?

Dr Anh Tran:

there is a little story that my dad used to say um, we were two and four, my sister, older sister and I my brother was yet not yet born and there my mum went to work early and um was there a little bit of a time between her and the babysitter. We had neighbors downstairs and they were around um, but at that time my mum forgot a pot on the stove and my sister and I were just watching this pot bubble and she, she pushed me downstairs, going, go downstairs. And I didn't speak a word of English, it was all Vietnamese, and she told me to yell help, help. And so, at two years old, I waddled downstairs, down the stairs and I went down and I went, oh and uh, the neighbors came up, turn off the.

Dr Anh Tran:

By that time my mom realized what she's done and she's gone to a panic, coming home. And she's gone home and everything was saved and solved and nothing burned down. But the idea that, at the age of two, that I was already going out there and helping and I wanted to be face in front and center was a clear, clear story that my dad loves to tell. So my sister was very shy and nervous and so she just sent me down and I'm like not a problem, I can do this I can do this.

Sarah Maxwell :

You could have brought something up there. An added layer that I would love to quickly talk like speak on is the fact that you spoke Vietnamese and then learning language in this country. What was that experience like, and did you serve as like translators for your parents?

Dr Anh Tran:

yes, I remember starting school with no English. Like I remember sitting in the classroom and looking at all the beautifully colored language like letters on the board go. I wish I could speak them. And so having no English and learning from the fly allows me to say to my children it's okay.

Dr Anh Tran:

I started with no English and I now got a PhD. It's fine. The children have an enormous capacity to learn, and so all through my childhood I was on the phone calling up trades, people talking to making business calls for my parents because I was their translator, and so I, at a very early age, learnt to do many things that I think a lot of adults do. When I was eight, wow, it was an incredible opportunity to learn adult lifestyle and skills, but it was quite hard because I also felt that I wanted to be a kid, that I was doing these things my parents translating official documents and helping them they were wonderful and very kind.

Sarah Maxwell :

But yeah, I was doing a lot of adult stuff at a young age and I wanted to mention that because I think I have heard that before, but I think it's sometimes a good reminder to all of us when we think about people living in this country who maybe come from a different land. Some of the challenges that they face as a family and what you've gone through, and also your story, is so incredible when it comes to look what you've created now. And so tell me a little bit about you know, you couldn't read or even recognize the alphabet when you started school. When did well, did you exemplify academic prowess and when did it start to show up?

Dr Anh Tran:

I always felt comfortable with numbers Not so much English, but definitely with numbers and so my school was really um for numeracy and so we used to have um, these competitions, timetable shootouts as we call and I would be uh next to another uh student and they would look at me, they would go, oh, not on again, and they would be, like you know, cry next to me in the shootout, and then they would call out two numbers and you just got to say the, the timetable's equivalent of the answer, and uh, it's so funny it's like a spelling bee, but for numbers correct and I love them.

Sarah Maxwell :

I look forward to them every week oh, that is so funny, that's so interesting. And are you still like that? Are you still the numbers, girl, I love?

Dr Anh Tran:

maths, I love um solving problems and yes so yes, I am a little bit.

Sarah Maxwell :

I love that so much and did that? You know, possibly did. Did it look like you were going to be a mathematician or tend toward maths, and how did you sort of navigate towards engineering and chemical engineering?

Dr Anh Tran:

So I loved all the STEM subjects science, mathematics, um so I loved all the STEM subjects science, mathematics, engineering and technology and I wanted to build things, so I loved building things. So I think that natural inclination was to become an engineer and my dad worked with aircrafts in the air force, so he inspired that and so, yes, I think I had a tendency to want to build, create, solve problems with, um, you know, creative solutions do you remember when you knew what engineering, what just then when you described I always loved engineering.

Sarah Maxwell :

I can track back that I didn't really understand what engineering was, clearly even when I started in it. I actually started in engineering, which all my friends laugh about, not kind um, but I actually never fully understood engineering. Can you remember when you knew that, what it was about?

Dr Anh Tran:

to be honest, I didn't actually know that I wanted to be an engineer. I, from a young age, wanted to be an astronaut.

Sarah Maxwell :

Interesting Okay.

Dr Anh Tran:

So my teachers in primary school I had two of them, mr Greedy and Mr Murphy, and they were a big space buff, and because my parents worked so hard, I didn. And when I got there, as the lid opened up and then this telescope came out into the sky and then we were able to look at a tiny version of Saturn with the rings around it, it just blew my mind that the world is much bigger than the earth, and so I wanted to be an astronaut. And to be an astronaut. I read and I researched that you either had to be a pilot or an engineer, and so I was going to do both.

Sarah Maxwell :

So that is, I have goosebumps. Okay, this is interesting because you are a pilot and an engineer. Are we still going for this goal?

Dr Anh Tran:

There's a possibility. Who knows SpaceX? You know you can go up there. Oh my goodness, seriously, I'd like to be a very old astronaut one day.

Sarah Maxwell :

Okay, this is cool. So you read engineer and pilot. So you, I know pilots more recent, so truly that's why you took engineering.

Dr Anh Tran:

Correct. Yes, that's how it's going to be an astronaut, but then it changed.

Sarah Maxwell :

Okay, tell me. Yeah, describe that. So, tell me. So you get into engineering. When did you start to shift your thinking a little bit?

Dr Anh Tran:

So I was doing a first year engineering project to send a rocket to Mars, and as I was doing this project and spending costing it in the billions of dollars, and I realized that there are so much more challenges on Earth poverty alleviation, climate change and I thought I actually would like to use my engineering skills to make the world a better place and not just send myself or other people up into space. There is such a need here, and so I changed to chemical engineering. Hold on what?

Sarah Maxwell :

age did you have that kind of wisdom? Oh 17, oh, my word. Okay, so you back it up for a sec. There's no way that you had a heart of service like that just at 17. That that must have been being nurtured from a bit of an earlier age. Was that something that you recognized in yourself? Definitely.

Dr Anh Tran:

I have a story that it's a bit hard to tell because it would bring me to tears, and so, um, because of my family background and how we came to Australia, um, that my parents and my older sister escaped in a boat and they were rescued. Uh, my other family member, my auntie, and her husband and her young son also escaped in another boat, but they didn't make it, sadly so. And my bengui my bengui, sorry, she was my grandmother in Vietnamese told me that I looked like goba, which is my auntie, and that not only do I look like her, I have my personality. So I, as a young age, personified the idea that I was a reincarnation of my auntie and that I was here for a purpose. Oh, my goodness, oh, to help people, particularly refugees and those displaced, to find a better life oh, my god, she would be so proud.

Sarah Maxwell :

You are the same person. That's really beautiful and, and for those who aren't watching, you have this like beautiful background of like dream time behind telling that story and it really feels important to share that. What you're doing is being guided in some way because and that's why I don't put out of reach that astronaut could be something like you say at an old, you know, at a different age. I know we assume certain things about when that has to happen. Thank you for sharing that. First of all, that was really beautiful. Um, I sort of see a documentary being made about you. Um, look, now I understand so much more and even the title humanitarian engineer I I'd never heard it before and for me, that that just like blew up my mind that those two things are put together and already you're just doing so many things to shift the narrative and the conversation. And I know that there's a story about a Rwandan refugee camp in I think it was 2018, and something really got stirred for you there. Can you share that?

Dr Anh Tran:

So I had a number of volunteer roles within the humanitarian and geospace, but I was lucky enough to get a position at a UK university in which I was able to do research with communities in refugee camps, and it was on an energy project that I was there. And as I walked into a five by five shed just imagine those sheds in the backyard tin, tin walls and a roof and a very little ventilation and inside this shed were three cooks cooking a meal for skilled children, and the smoke in the little hut was just so accurate that I couldn't even stay in there for two minutes and I had to go out. Then I was coughing and spluttering and I was just thinking in my engineering brain how could this happen in this day and age? The solution to cooking not using firewood is there, and why in this day and age is that still existing? And not only in these school settings, but in every home, every hut, there is a woman over a fireplace with blackened walls, still cooking for a family, and one of the challenges is that in these display settings they give firewood that lasts typically only half the time they need it. So for a month they were given like five long sticks, but then the other half of the month, there is no firewood and they give you food, but how are you going to cook for your family and feed them when you don't have fuel?

Dr Anh Tran:

And so the challenges in these places is that women and children typically have to leave the compounds of the camp to find Bywood, and during the time that they're out there, they could be faced with abuse, and it's not unheard of, and because they were doing it illegally, they don't report it, and so it's an ongoing cycle of just terrible, terrible situations, and so for me to have that as, like, a gendered problem, typically it breaks my heart, and the reason why I know this is a gendered problem typically, uh, it breaks my heart and the reason why I know this is a gendered problem is that, while on this research project, I talked to these uh committee members within the refugee camps, and I remember this one occasion where there were 12 people in a room one man, 12, 11 women and I asked them individually what was their priority in terms of energy needs, and that one man. He said electrification for agriculture, for communication and for entertainment watching tvs. And that's okay, right? 11 women. What did these 11 women say? Cooking, correct, right, cooking.

Dr Anh Tran:

And what more is that, at the time funding, 95% went to electrification, 5% went to cooking, because the decision makers are typically men, and this man was the chairman of the committee. So, once again, a very gendered problem, and the decision makers aren't the ones that could have an impact. But in saying that, though, what my dream is is actually to have renewable energy, electric cooking appliances. That is a win-win for everybody. So it's electrification and cooking, so it's not a split funding funding. It is actually a joint funding that improves lives for all so cool.

Sarah Maxwell :

I was just thinking how, when you said it's a gendered problem, I was like you know, it's kind of a gendered solution as well in a funny way. But then you've expanded that. I still think it's a gendered solution in that it needed you, with your background and your intellect and your heart, as a woman sitting there willing to ask the 11 women, to then be able to translate that into a solution which, as a female, you then include everyone. Again, I'm like I was like yes, we include everyone.

Dr Anh Tran:

Yes, okay, it has to be a win-win for everybody for this to happen, because it's not a engineering solution. It's actually a political and an economic solution and it needs everybody on board. And you're gonna make like you're gonna get people to care and that's the ultimate thing to get people to care about a solution that will help many people.

Sarah Maxwell :

And one of the things about getting people to care. What I just realized is it's like they need to sit in the five by five shed with their eyes burning. Or I remember traveling to Nepal and asking the guide like, why are all the kids, why are their eyes red? Their nose was running. You know, I was asking about some of these challenges and only it's like you have to see it yourself. Yes, to care, which is I'm thinking that's a bit sad, but it's true, and so I'm curious. So you're in that, in that Rwandan shed, and you're having that moment and things are starting to click right. You're starting to think, whoa, this is a problem. What is like the timeframe from idea, like a spark, to actually starting to solve? So like maybe even the first thing that you remember actively putting in place to possibly even create future eCook.

Dr Anh Tran:

So, sarah, it's completely crazy, I gave up a tenured position at a university to join a unique UK funded project in the clean cooking space. So I joined Loughborough University on the Modern Energy Cooking Services Program, which is a unique program that matched researchers with like non-profit organizations, with world global institutions such as United Nations, to bring about a change in clean cooking based on data driven data, and so I left this position because I was passionate, I needed to to do something, and so I worked on this project on a contract basis, and even at my interview, they said why are you doing this? And I'm like because I believe it is a calling, I have to do it.

Sarah Maxwell :

So, yes, and so that I see your emotion.

Dr Anh Tran:

In that it's like thank you for saying that, because you may be, we may make assumptions about chemical engineer, but I see who's leading, your heart's leading and it may not have been the most economically wise choice for my family myself, but I knew that we came here with nothing and there is always opportunities. There's something that always happens that allows me to continue to feed my children and then follow the passion and serve the world as I want Girl oh my goodness, I was like doing my own trying not to be too teary that I can't ask the question because I feel like I need to know now about UQ financially backing.

Sarah Maxwell :

You know there's a program called iLabs. They're this. You know this initial backing of Future eCook. Why is that important to you and tell me more about I'm sure you need a lot more financial backing as well. So talk to me a little bit about. I'm sure you're in those two realms, right, you're grateful, it's important, and then there's more needed. So talk to us about that.

Dr Anh Tran:

It is a challenge and we were so grateful for iLab because it gave us a start. It gave us money to build a prototype to test our assumptions, and that it began the idea of rolling out so expertise within entrepreneurship and how that. However, during the, the biggest hurdle I found was that I needed to acquire money to pay my salary, and I think the idea of funding myself instead of funding people got to me and I wasn't able to to delete bridge that gap, and I know many people do, but I at that time just couldn't imagine spending an Australian salary, an engineering salary, on myself to continue on with Future Cook. So I had to find a job to feed my family, but on the side I can continue to work with the projects engineering to look at future cook projects and looking at how we can match schools in Australia and those in countries to do an energy audit and understand what the needs of schools are.

Dr Anh Tran:

Um, the idea that and I and I struggle because I am so passionate and I believe in it so much, but it does require funding. It does require the idea that you need to pay people salaries, uh that to be able to do these programs it's, it's not just only to build a prototype and equipment. But it's the people, and the people are the core elements of creating a change, and so, yes, I'm still building. It is still a dream job and the idea that it will be sustainable and it will fund many people across the world to do this, but at the moment, it's still developing.

Sarah Maxwell :

Yeah, thank you for that. I think, too, you said something really poignant about making people care, and I see that that might be the biggest part of your job. One day you wake up and you think, wow, that seems like that's the most important part is getting people to care and put the money where that care is, and so well, you're the woman for the job, and thank you for you. Got to bring light to it, like you are, like, shine a light, and that's why it's so exciting that you're having this conversation with us, because this is aimed at girls and women who will listen and see their own pathway, their own heart being stirred for what matters to them, and so I know you're currently managing the Women in Engineering program as one of your jobs, and what advice do you give to women, or even girls, in STEM, when you're talking about career?

Dr Anh Tran:

I am so fortunate because I get to spend every day inspiring young women to follow their passion, and that's what I tell them Just find your passion and follow it, no matter what it is, and the caveat is to find someone to pay you for it. And I wanted a technical career and I wanted to travel, and I have done that many times over. A technical career and I wanted to travel, and I have done that many times over. And then I wanted to serve the world and we are finding people to fund this. It's one of those really amazing things that you just need to believe, you need to follow and you just need to work hard and hopefully there will also be some lucks along the way.

Dr Anh Tran:

I surround myself with inspirational people every day, and that includes young women and girls who care about the world, and that gives me a lot of heart, because when I tell them the story about clean cooking and future cooking, how it's gendered, I can see that they're asking themselves why does this exist? How could this possibly be the case? And that is the impetus I need to continue and keep going. And yes, I love that.

Sarah Maxwell :

Care about the world follow your passions and in that and this might it is what you've just said, but just a real life example of your life that moment when you gave up that 10 year position for that contract because you were following your passion, what did that take? Talk to me through what goes on, because this will go on for other girls. They'll be making massive choices for their life. What went on inside of you?

Dr Anh Tran:

And I think part of it was I cannot not do it, but also I'm like am I crazy yeah.

Dr Anh Tran:

The idea that, when I like, look within, the fundamental drive for my life is to make the world a better place, and I can continue to do it individually, but I also maybe I can do it bringing other people with me on this journey, and that is the goal is to to bring people along the journey with me. I'm not just solving the problems people, they're solving their own problems and I'm just a conduit for that and that's all I like. It was a hard decision. It was something financially that my family, for my kids, I I thought about, but we can be happy with very little and that's all it is. They just want my time and my presence and I give them that and then they can see that I am following my dreams and they see that and they feel that and I'm really happy for it. Happiness cannot be bought.

Sarah Maxwell :

Do you have that written down somewhere, like, have you um, like, do you diarize it or do you write it down? That the? I really get the sense that you know your guiding principle in life. Is this just because it's front of mind, like you say this to yourself, or have you written that down somewhere? Where did you get to that clarity?

Dr Anh Tran:

I have an imagination board and I put pictures of what I want to see in the world, and some of it is about the future cook and clean, cooking and helping women and children. I have one for electric airplanes that I want to build. I have one for a tree house and one for just my family, and so they're my four goals in life at the moment, and one for just my family, and so that they're my four goals in life at the moment.

Sarah Maxwell :

Thank you for that, added. I had a feeling I was like there's no way that it's so front of mind. I felt that you'd you'd take an action around that as well, and you just brought up the airplane. So I thought, for a little bit of fun to end, we could just have you explain the whole pilot business, because I feel there's a secondary career brewing as you're going to be solving, you know, the world's problems. Um, tell me about the pilot. How did that all happen?

Dr Anh Tran:

so every kid has a dream, and I've always thought I'd love to fly. I was working in the UK and, unfortunately, I had a phone call from home telling my dad was diagnosed with cancer, and so I dropped everything and came home and I spent the next eight months beside him, learning about life and just appreciating the wonderful person he was, and part of it was that he worked till he was diagnosed. He was 70, he worked at a fish and chip shop, raising us, and he didn't live his dream. And I made sure that I was not going to die without fulfilling at least one dream, and so that was to become a pilot. And so in the time since I have got my private pilot license and I took my uh my test with a picture of my dad on the dashboard.

Dr Anh Tran:

I've taken my mum up once and she was very happy because I flew around our childhood home and I showed her where we were born from the air. And the dream is that right now it is based on fossil fuels the fuel but my dream is to build an electric plane. I built two planes previously with schools as part of my voluntary work, and so my dream is to fly these electric planes in Africa, delivering some of our clean cooking solutions to schools, and that is the dream. In a decade, two decades. That is what I'd like to do.

Sarah Maxwell :

Oh, my goodness. Well, girls, if you're not inspired by this? I mean you're auntie, I mean it's like a knower, and just hearing your dad and what you're fulfilling for your family, I mean you guys came over on a boat and look what you're doing. Now you're flying above it. It's really special and thank you so much for sharing who you are and what you bring. And I personally believe it's the only way that you can have people along the journey is you got to tell people your dreams. You got to tell them what you're up for and you may just align with someone else who's up for the same thing and, like you say, it's collaborative.

Dr Anh Tran:

You know you're gonna do this with other people and so thank you so much for sharing your story, and you're communicating with the world. You know significant impact every day, and so I thank you for the opportunity to share this story. You're beautiful and your podcast is beautiful. Thank you, oh thank you, wait.

Sarah Maxwell :

I mean, I used to get told I talk too much and then they created a medium that made it like they. They, I'm vindicated, but truly I. I could just spend all day speaking to someone like you because my heart's in it, like yours, and if I'd known that a humanitarian engineer existed, possibly I would have stayed in it.

Dr Anh Tran:

I would have loved you. You would have been an ambassador and more and I could have done my numbers.

Sarah Maxwell :

I could have done that multiplication thing. I got this you do. All my friends are laughing right now. I'm silencing all of them. I'm a relationship engineer. Here we go, but truly, truly, truly, thank you, and I feel we're going to be in relationship for a long time because there's no accidents. So thank you for creating that board, aligning with us and sharing yourself so beautifully.

Dr Anh Tran:

Thank you so much, Sarah.

Sarah Maxwell :

Loved every minute, thank you. Thank you for joining us on another episode of In the Game podcast. We hope we have inspired you with these real lived experiences of incredible women navigating their careers their way. We are all about sharing around here, so if you know someone who would benefit from listening to this podcast or this show in general, do it now and share the love. Pressing follow on the pod makes a massive difference. Taking two minutes to rate us for season seven means that more people will get to hear these stories, which will widen the impact. Join us next time for more captivating stories of female trailblazers who are leaving behind clues for that next generation of women and girls.