PM Dung receives internationally well-known Vietnamese-American Professor

In the government's office, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung yesterday received Vietnamese-American Professor Luu Le Hang who is now working at the US's Harvard University and the Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

In the government's office, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung yesterday received Vietnamese-American Professor Luu Le Hang who is now working at the US's Harvard University and the Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Vietnamese PM Nguyen Tan Dung receives Professor Luu Le Hang in the government's office (Photo: SGGP)
Vietnamese PM Nguyen Tan Dung receives Professor Luu Le Hang in the government's office (Photo: SGGP)

Vietnamese-American Professor Luu Le Hang has won a number of top world prizes for her discoveries, including the Shaw Prize in astronomy and Kavli Prize in astrophysics. She is considered one of internationally great astrophysicists.

The PM lauded Hang's contributions to astronomy and expressed his admiration for the professor, saying Hang's success was not only the pride of the nation but also a great inspiration for Vietnamese researchers and inventors.

PM Dung stressed that though the country is still poor, the government and the Party always determine education & training; science and technology are key national policies, and Vietnam had dedicated substantial resources to these areas to offer great condition for young Vietnamese people to study and make researches.

Mr. Dung said he hoped the professor would continue her work to develop the country's astronomy sector. In addition, through talks, seminars and delivering lectures to students, Ms. Hang will ignite the passion for learning and making scientific researches in Vietnamese young generation.

Professor Luu Le Hang expressed her motion to see passionate young Vietnamese people believing that with adequate investment in education, more Vietnamese scientists would be honored in the global arena. She pledged to do her utmost to join scientific events and activities in Vietnam, including the "Gap go Viet Nam"(Meet Vietnam) program initiated by Professor Tran Thanh Van.

She also praised the development of a scientific space complex in Binh Dinh, adding that the model would be expanded to other localities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Born in 1963 in Ho Chi Minh City, Professor Hang has made great achievements in astronomy by discovering the Kuiper Belt and more than 30 new small planets, one of which was named after her: Asteroid 5430 Luu.

The American Astronomical Society awarded Luu the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy in 1991. In 1992, Luu received a Hubble Fellowship from the Space Telescope Science Institute and chose the University of California, Berkeley as a host institution. In 2012, she won (along with David C. Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles) the Shaw Prize and the Kavli Prize (shared with Jewitt and Michael E. Brown) - these prizes are considered as Nobel prize in the astrophysics field.

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