They are an overseas Vietnamese couple – Prof. Le Kim Ngoc and Prof. Tran Thanh Van – who have devoted themselves to science and to their home country – Vietnam.

 

Vietnamese scientists welcomed a significant event last December: the ground breaking ceremony of an international center for science and education in Quy Nhon city of Binh Dinh province. Prof. Ngoc and Prof. Van, who had deserved credit for this project, returned home from France to attend this expected event. The work is built on 20 hectares of land, at a cost of millions of USD, raised from various sources in tens of years by Prof. Ngoc, Prof. Van and their colleagues at the Rencontres du Vietnam, an association of Vietnamese-origin scientists in France. Shining in France Prof. Ngoc was born in the southern province of Vinh Long. Her family moved to Saigon when she was only one year old. One year later, Ngoc’s mother died. The little girl studied at the Gia Long and then Marie Curie schools in Saigon. She then won a scholarship to study in France. She entered the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1953. No family, no acquaintance in France, Ngoc spent the whole time in study. Three years later, the Vietnamese student excellently graduated from the Natural Sciences Faculty and pursued her studies at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). During that time, she met with Tran Thanh Van, a poor student from the central province of Quang Binh who also won a scholarship to study in France. The young man also lost her mother when he was small and was an outstanding student. They got married in 1961. The wife studied experimental sciences in biology while the husband researched theoretic of atomic physics. In 1963, Mr. Van received the PhD degree while Ms. Ngoc, who also held a PhD degree, was appointed as the director of CNRS. The couple was highly appreciated for their talent and their research works. Mr. Van has had hundreds of research works on physics and published over 120 books. Ms. Ngoc was the first scientist in the world who introduced the concept “Thin cell layer” on the famous Nature journal in the 70s. In the book entitled “Thin cell layer”, published by Kluwer Academic publishing house, Canadian Prof. Gamborg from the Calgary University praised Prof. Ngoc’s work as a new method that made a revolution in flora biology technology. Whole life devoted to science When working on his thesis in France, Prof. Van perceived a lack of communication between theoretical and experimental physicists working in the same fields. Thus, in 1966, he created with a few colleagues a series of meetings that he named "Rencontres," whose essential aim was to promote exchange and collaboration in a friendly and convivial atmosphere. The first Rencontres de Moriond meetings were held in January 1966 in Savoie. Attending were about twenty European particle physicists, theorists, and experimentalists who were given the opportunity to meet in a relaxed atmosphere. Gradually, the Rencontres gained international stature as a venue for presenting new discoveries. Prof. Ngoc went on to create similar Rencontres for biologists in 1970, leading to interdisciplinary exchanges between biologists and physicists.    In the late 1970s, convinced of the complementary nature of particle physics and astrophysics, Prof. Van developed the Moriond Astrophysics series in 1981, which is held in parallel with the Rencontres de Moriond in particle physics so as to maximize cross-discipline interactions. In this spirit of cross-fertilization, a new series, the Rencontres de Blois, was initiated in 1989. At these interdisciplinary events, held in the prestigious Castle of Blois, physicists, astrophysicists, cosmologists, biologists, chemists, and mathematicians have the opportunity to meet and discuss topics such as chaos and complexity and the origin of life. In 1993, the first Rencontres du Vietnam was held to enable the Vietnamese scientific community to develop contacts and exchanges with foreign colleagues. Thematic schools for researcher training were created, such as the Vietnam School of Physics, which has been operating annually since 1994, and welcoming many young researchers from Vietnam and other Asian countries. The couple has two daughters, who have had their own families. Though they have been retired for ten years, Prof. Van and Prof. Ngoc have pursused science-related activities. Prof. Van has organized six Rencontres du Vietnam in Vietnam. He has also invited many Nobel laureates to Vietnam, including Jack Steinberger (December 1993), Georges Charpak and Norman Ramsey (October 1995), James Cronin (November 1999), Jerome Friedman and Norman Ramsey (July 2000), James Cronin and Klaus von Klitzing (July 2006) and Jerome Friedman (August 2008). Prof. Van has also assisted tens of talented Vietnamese to study in France. The French government presented Prof. Van the Legion of Honor order for his contribution to science. Last November, the American Institute of Physics (AIP) awarded the John Torrence Tate Award for International Leadership in Physics to Prof. Van in recognition of his role spanning more than four decades in bringing together the community of physicists across national and cultural borders through the Rencontres de Moriond and Rencontres de Blois, and for his tireless efforts to build a modern scientific community in Vietnam. Big hearts Prof. Van and his wife have also been active on the humanitarian scene. In 1970, they founded in Paris the association Aide à l'Enfance du Vietnam (Aid to the Children of Vietnam) to help Vietnamese orphans. The association has created in Vietnam a shelter and training center for homeless children in Hue and two SOS Children's Villages, one in Dalat and one in Dong Hoi, in the framework of the International Federation of SOS Children's Villages (SOS Kinderdorf International). Apart from raising funds to build SOS villages, Prof. Van has also set up and joined hands in establishing many scholarship funds. Since 1997, the “Rencontres du Vietnam” chaired by Prof. Van has presented many scholarships to talented graduates from the National University of Vietnam. With their effective contribution, many international friends have shown respect for and assisted the couple. One of Prof. Van’s friends, Prof. Ordon Vallet from the University of Sorbornne, used part of his inheritance to help establish the Vallet Scholarship Fund to support Vietnamese undergraduates and secondary-school students. The fund has granted tens of thousands of scholarships to Vietnamese students. The contribution of Prof. Tran Thanh Van and his wife, Dr. Le Tran Thanh Kim Ngoc, to their homeland is uncountable. Medals and certificates of merit that are presented to the couple by the central and local governments of Vietnam can partly prove it.

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