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Mathematician Tran Quang Hoa is honored at Hue University of Education |
Colleagues, students and poor people in the poor, white sand countryside of Thua Thien-Hue Province could not help feeling proud of an inhabitant - mathematician Tran Quang Hoa – when he was honored at the award-giving ceremony to receive the French Academy of Sciences’ Tremplin Award. His journey of education pursuit is a motivational and inspiring story of overcoming poverty to find opportunities.
A bridge to connect Vietnamese - French Mathematics
The French Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Academy of Sciences put forward the Tremplin Prize to promote current cooperation agreements between French researchers and researchers in the ASEAN region. The award given for the first time by the French Academy of Sciences on October 17 at the institute's Great Hall in Paris (France) aims to honor, recognize and create conditions to promote the development of bilateral cooperation projects in scientific research between France and ASEAN countries.
Among them, the topic ‘Describing Commutative Algebra and its Interaction with Algebraic Geometry and Combinatoric’ is the result of a collaboration between Deputy Dean of the Hue University of Education’s Department of Mathematics Tran Quang Hoa and Professor Marc Chardin, a mathematician at the Mathematics Institute of Jussieu–Paris Rive Gauche - a French research institute in fundamental mathematics. They surpassed thousands of scientists to receive this prestigious award. The topic refers to research on theoretical mathematics but has specific applications.
The research object of the project is rational mapping used to model objects such as cars, airplanes or applications in 3D printing technology. Their topic studies the complexity of algorithms to simulate objects on computers using rational mappings. In particular, although the research topic is theoretical, it can be completely applied in practice such as 3D printing modeling of objects such as the appearance of cars, and airplanes.
Thereby, it helps engineers apply and come up with new designs to reduce production costs and prices, said researcher Tran Quang Hoa. According to Mr. Hoa, this Tremplin Award has opened up many conditions for himself and his colleagues to pursue their passion for studying numbers.
After they received the award, the group of researchers planned to use the EUR22,000 bonus to develop cooperation and exchange projects between French experts such as Professor Marc Chardin of Sorbonne University and Professor Laurent Busé of Nice University and colleagues in Hanoi and Hue.
In the immediate future, French mathematics professors will go to Hue to give lectures to students, graduate students, and staff of the Mathematics faculty. Some colleagues in Hanoi and Hue will also go to France to collaborate and implement several projects.
Mr. Tran Quang Hoa emphasized that this is a great opportunity to study, gain research experience and improve professional capacity. Moreover, it affirms the effective research cooperation in the field of mathematics of France and Vietnam in general, and of lecturers of the Mathematics Department of Hue University of Education in particular.
Decision to continue working in Vietnam is a choice of family
After he was bestowed the Tremplin Award in France, mathematician Tran Quang Hoa was also honored by Hue University of Education. Associate Professor Nguyen Thanh Nhan, Vice Rector in charge of Hue University of Education highly appreciates the return of mathematician Tran Quang Hoa because according to Associate Professor Nguyen Thanh Nhan, foreign countries have attractive remuneration in addition to good facilities and academic space; therefore, mathematician Tran Quang Hoa’s decision to continue working in Vietnam is a choice of family and homeland.
Being born into a poor family with many children, in the white sand countryside of Thua Thien Hue Province’s Phong Chuong Commune of Phong Dien District, mathematician Hoa has made a lot of effort to study despite his family’s poverty. Hoa's bare feet may burn from the dry land on summer days when he worked as a construction worker but his heart was filled with passion for study.
Dr. Tran Quang Hoa told an SGGP reporter that all seven siblings of his are eager to learn, but most of them only finish ninth grade and then quit and go to work because the family had no money. Only Hoa and her youngest sister could continue pursuing higher schooling because their parents and siblings pampered them, but he and his youngest sister have nearly dropped out of schools several times because the family just lived on several acres of rice fields all year round.
Worse, his father, who is the family's breadwinner, lost one arm after an accident at work, requiring regular medication. He won many awards for excellent students at the provincial level, Hoa dreamed of becoming a doctor, but he had to choose to learn Hue Pedagogy University’s Math faculty because he didn’t need to pay any tuition fee.
Upon graduation, with outstanding academic achievements, he was retained by Hue University of Education as a lecturer and scientific researcher. In 2014, he received a scholarship to France as a graduate student and was directly guided by Professor Marc Chardin on the topic of geometric description in commutative algebra mentioned above. But it was only 10 months after being assigned this topic that Chemistry had its first research results when the problem assigned by the instructor had obtained some results.
He remembered when he got the initial results and was praised by the professor, he enjoyed the happiness. After successfully defending his doctoral thesis at Paris VI the University of Sorbonne University, mathematician Tran Quang Hoa returned to Hue and continued with Professor Marc Chardin to research the topic ‘Describing geometry in commutative algebra’ which was honored and awarded the French Academy of Sciences’ award in early 2023.
