In the history of the list of foreign members of RAS, the first Vietnamese citizen elected as a foreign academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was Mr. Tran Dai Nghia.
In February 1966, Mr. Tran Dai Nghia became an Academician specializing in Mechanics. This scientist is famous for his technical inventions that effectively contributed to the resistance war of the Vietnamese army and people against the French colonialists.
In 1976, historian Nguyen Khanh Toan was the second Vietnamese to become a foreign academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. Among his scientific works, there are many works researching the revolutionary relationship between Vietnam and Russia.
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| Photo: VNA |
Especially, academician Nguyen Van Hieu was elected to the Institute of Physics under the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union in January 1982.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu works in many fields of Mathematics and Physics. Most of his scientific activities are associated with the Institute of Nuclear Research in the city of Dubna.
At the institute, together with Russian scientists, Professor Nguyen Van Hieu researched the most complex problems of Theoretical Physics. In 1986, he and other Russian physicists were awarded the Lenin Prize by the Soviet Union.
In May 1993, scientist Tran Dinh Long, specializing in Agronomy, was elected as a foreign academician of RAS. Professor Tran Dinh Long was also famous as the leader of the Vietnamese Alumni Association of Soviet Universities (VINACORVUZ).
In 1999, philosopher, physicist-sociologist Nguyen Duy Quy, then serving as Chairman of the Vietnam Social Sciences Committee (now the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences), and chemist Dang Vu Minh, who then was the President of the Vietnam Institute of Science and Technology (now the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology), became foreign academicians of RAS.
The honoured Vietnamese scientists are all bright lights and the pride of Vietnamese science. At the same time, they are also the pride of Russian science, because most of them studied in the Soviet Union./.