VietNamNet Bridge – The Government will create more favorable conditions for scientists and young people to achieve the best results in their study, and will boost education reform to improve human resources for Vietnam’s development and further global integration.

Hundreds welcome Fields Medal winner Ngo Bao Chau back

Vietnamese Professor Ngo Bao Chau wins Fields Medal

Professor Ngo Bao Chau: “Honestly, I’m a bit nervous”

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung with Professor Ngo Bao Chau at the ceremony held in Hanoi in honor of the Fields Medal winner. (Photo: TTXVN)

The message was delivered by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at a ceremony in Hanoi that was held and broadcast live on VTV1 channel in the Sunday evening to honor Professor Ngo Bao Chau, whose name was called out as one of the four Fields winners at the International Congress of Mathematicians 2010 in Hyderabad, India on August 19.

“In the fast-changing world of globalization and knowledge-based economy, our country’s top priority and strategy is to speed up HR development as Vietnam cannot advance if there is not high quality HR,” Dung said.

The Prime Minister said the Government had identified HR and further education and training reform as a breakthrough part of the country’s strategy for socio-economic development in 2011-2020.

“To narrow development gaps (with other countries) and to avoid being left behind in international competition, Vietnam needs to have more people like Ngo Bao Chau… and a learning environment where everybody has opportunities to approach modern knowledge and bring into play their creative ability,” Dung said.

The Prime Minister called for young people in Vietnam to model themselves on Professor Chau by devoting their life to sciences to achieve the best of their ability. He said the Government would give them more favorable conditions to reach their goals.

In his speech, Chau said his experience in France and the United States showed that a healthy learning environment was prerequisite for young scientists to develop themselves and advance in their research.

“A healthy environment is where learning and learning ethics are placed at the top and equality is given to all scientists regardless of their ages,” Chau said at the event, which was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan and Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Hop, as well as more than 2,500 students of universities and colleges in and around Hanoi.

The ceremony took place one day after the Fields medalist Chau returned to Vietnam and nine days after he won the award that is comparable to the Nobel prize in other fields. The Hanoi-born professor made Vietnam the second nation in Asia after Japan and the first developing country to win the world’s most honorable mathematics award so far.

The 38-year-old was granted such a prestigious prize for his success in formulating the proof for the general case of Langlands’ lemma in 2008 and this achievement was chosen by Time magazine as one of the Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of 2009.

Chau was recognized as the youngest professor in Vietnam in 2005 when he was 33, or one year he won a Clay Research Award for solving part of the fundamental lemma. His collection of honorable prizes in mathematics included the Sophie Germain and Oberwolfach prizes in 2007.

Chau said he was greatly honored to receive the Fields Medal and share this pride with Vietnamese people. In his speech, Prime Minister Dung thanked lecturers and scientists of Vietnam, France and the U.S. for helping Chau achieve this great success.

On August 17, the Prime Minister endorsed a national focal mathematics development strategy in 2010-2020. The strategy includes establishment of an advanced mathematics institute to back the country’s mathematics sector as a key to developing other science-based industries.

VietNamNet/SGT