Professor Martin Groetschel, secretary of the International Mathematics Union, and Professor Gerard Laumon, PhD guide of Fields Medal-winning mathematician Ngo Bao Chau, speak to Tuoi Tre.
Prof Groetschel, can you tell us about the Fields Medal and why it was conferred on Ngo Bao Chau?
Ngo Bao Chau’s … work focuses on a very complicated branch of research. His contribution, work on general reductive groups, is one of the key components of the fundamental lemma proposed by Robert Langlands, which successfully connects two important fields of mathematics, arithmetic and geometry. So, Chau has solved the foundation problems for developing Langlands’ program.
I congratulate Ngo Bao Chau and the sweet outcome of Vietnam’s endeavors to learn math.
As an experienced mathematician who has worked with Asians, what do you think about Vietnam’s progress in mathematics?
Let me express my respect for Vietnam’s great achievements in math since it has just started to develop from a war-torn and one of the poorest countries in the world. I have a feeling that most Vietnamese people desire to be educated well. So Vietnam must try to create the most favorable conditions for Vietnamese youths to step up.
My first Vietnamese PhD candidate will soon hand in his work and I am instructing a Vietnamese master’s candidate in Berlin.
Prof Laumon, can you recall when you first met Ngo Bao Chau and why did you choose to instruct him as a PhD candidate?
It was Chau’s presentation for his MA degree that persuaded me since I had no good research topics for a PhD candidate. Michel Broue, who was in charge of math at École Normale Supérieure at that time, had a good impression of Chau and convinced me to be Chau’s PhD guide.
What do you think about Chau’s achievement?
It is the peak of the first half of his career and he now leads the world in math.
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