The Field Medal prize of Prof. Ngo Bao Chau has left a question: did his success come from the education of France? If so, Vietnam should reconsider its training methods and other policies to keep talented scientists at home rather than going abroad for studying and living.
During a recent visit to Chau’s family in Hanoi, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said the government was willing to offer the best working and living conditions to Chau, whose groundbreaking mathematical work was honored by TIME Magazine as one of the top ten scientific discoveries of 2009.
The unofficial offer was made even as Chau is poised to attend the International Mathematical Union 2010, scheduled to open August 19 in India, as one of the nominees for the Fields Medals, before taking up a position at the University of Chicago on September 1.
The government’s offer has raised questions about the its plan to recruit and use overseas talents.
In an interview with Thanh Nien newspaper, professor Le Tuan Hoa, deputy director of the Mathematics Institute, said it is clear that the country cannot afford to pay professor Chau the income he receives abroad.
“If Chau returns full-time to Vietnam, it could affect his connection with the international community of mathematicians, which can make it hard [on us] if we want to invite prominent mathematicians to Vietnam for research or recommend our students to them,” said Hoa, who is involved with the government’s draft plan to establish the Institute for Advanced Research in Math.
Professor Hoa noted that in the past, the institute has made efforts to offer the best working conditions for Chau, but under the government’s current policy, the highest offer was only VND5 million (US$262) per month.
“That does not equal the daily salary he could earn abroad. We know we don’t have enough funding to pay overseas Vietnamese experts. We must realize that we need to provide the minimum conditions for them to return,” he said.
Hoa said the government is expected to soon approve the draft plan to establish the Institute for Advanced Research in Math, which consists of three to five full-time researchers whose mission is to leverage the country’s position in the world of mathematics.
Local news website VietnamNet quoted professor Chau as saying he was very appreciative of the Deputy Prime Minister’s offer but did not mention the possibility of returning to work full-time in Vietnam.
Vietnam’s mathematics now ranks the 54th position in the world, while the number of mathematic scientific research work is just at average level. Therefore, many expert said Vietnam needs to have a key national program on mathematics development.
On July 30, while submitting to the Ministry of Education and Training the plan on the key national program to develop mathematics by 2020, Professor Tran Van Nhung, Secretary General of the State Professorship Council, informed that Professor Ngo Bao Chau has been invited to speak at the 2010 International Congress of Mathematics in India.
This is really a great honor to Vietnam, because it is highly possible that those people who are invited to speak at the congress may be awarded the Fields Medal, the dream of many countries in the world, he said.
The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union, a meeting that takes place every four years. This is the top honor a mathematician can receive. Even China, a powerful country in mathematics, also has not had any mathematician who gets Fields Medal yet, according to Nhung.
Vietnam always has high achievements in international mathematics Olympiads. However, according to Professor Le Tuan Hoa, Deputy Head of the Mathematics Institute, currently no mathematics faculty at any university in Vietnam has been recognized as having modern mathematics teaching methods.
Meanwhile, the number of good students who choose to pursue mathematics has been decreasing. The number of students achieving required marks from the university entrance exams to be able to study mathematics has been decreasing year after year.
The ratio of declared Vietnamese mathematics research works is just 0.21 percent of the world, while the ratio of Vietnamese population is 1.33 percent. Vietnam is now ranks 54th in the world in mathematics.
The number of scientists who have mathematics research works so far has reached 850. Meanwhile, the total number of Vietnamese mathematicians who still follow mathematics studies is less than a mathematics faculty of a university in developed countries, according to Hoa.
Therefore, Vietnamese mathematicians believe it is necessary to have a national key program on developing mathematics, and the core part of the program is to build up a high-ranking mathematics research and training institute. The institute will be like a common house for high-ranking mathematicians, which will be the help birth ideas and scientific works.
Such institutes now exist in many countries in the world, such as Princeton in the US, KIAS in South Korea and Max-Planck in Germany.
When asked why Vietnam should focus on developing mathematics, instead of other fields like physics or chemistry, Professor Hoa said that Vietnam has nine state-level science-technology development programs relating to basic sciences, but there has been no program relating to mathematics.
Hoa said if the suggested program succeeds, such a model would also be applied to other scientific fields.
Commenting about the program, Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan said this is a program to train talented people; therefore, it needs a special mechanism.
“Most Nobel Prize winners are mathematicians,” said the Minister, who is also an economic expert. Therefore, he also believes Vietnam needs to learn good lessons from other mathematics institutes in the world and apply suitable schemes in Vietnam.
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