VietNamNet Bridge – Just several hours before the ceremony to accept his appointment as the director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics, Professor Ngo Bao Chau, last year's Fields Medal winner, talked to Tien Phong about what he is going to do in his new position in order to help develop Vietnam’s sciences.

Professor Ngo Bao Chau said:

I will have two different projects independent of each other: the work of a scientist and the work as a leader of an institute. I plan to return to Vietnam this summer to become the chief of a research team that gathers mathematicians from the faculties of the Hanoi and HCM City National Universities operating in the fields related to mine .

The research team will be just a small group in the first phase of operation, but hopefully, later on it will acquire  more scientists. Next year, when the Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics has a stable budget, I plan to invite some more foreign professors and Vietnamese professors working in foreign countries to collaborate.

As a leader of the institute, my responsibility will be to ensure that the scientific activities of the institute will go in accordance with the previously set plan: strengthening the capability of domestic scientists to do scientific research and creating the most favorable conditions for university lecturers to join scientific research work.

 My work right for now is to strengthen the organization and makes the apparatus work orderly. In the first year of operation, the director may have to appoint research topics. However, in the following years, the themes must be approved by a scientific council. We are going to organize such a scientific council this summer.

How can the institute create most favorable conditions for scientists and university lecturers to do scientific research?

We will give encouragement and support, so that they can set up research teams and attract young, overseas Vietnamese mathematicians. One of the biggest problems of the universities and research institutes in Vietnam is that we lack young scientists and we lack new lease of life.

In order to settle the problem, the only way is to create new research teams. A lot of young overseas Vietnamese told me that they really want to return to Vietnam, but they are still unable to make up their mind. If they return and they would have to immediately struggle with the current complicated administrative mechanism in Vietnam, and their research would be interrupted.

As such, the institute will act as the bridge that links the scientists to the domestic working environment. This will be the place the scientists can stay for some first years after they return to Vietnam. That time will be long enough for them to set up research teams in Vietnam.

Will the research teams try to create new search directions just to obtain money from the budget?

I have been warned about that. I personally have the responsibility of ensuring that the institute spiritually does not compromise research for money. Therefore, I want to put the institute’s operation in order soon, and I hope we can soon establish a scientific council. The scientists to be selected must be qualified scientists who have work recognized by the international community. The scientists come to the institute not only to do research for themselves, but also to impact the development of Vietnam’s sciences.

Who will have the right to form the list of the members of the scientific council? Will scientists be  compliant and nominate the individuals who lack enthusiasm in scientific research?

I myself will be one of the main persons in charge of the establishment of the scientific council. In order to have a list of fit professors, I will discuss and listen to prestigious scientists in Vietnam. In social relations, I may be indulgent to someone. However, compliance must not exist when doing scientific research.

Some people have expressed their worries when hearing that you have been appointed as Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics. They say you are excellent in mathematics, but you may not be good at management?

I really think that managing is a difficult job. My main role in the institute is to ensure that scientific research goes smoothly, and the money allocated by the state to set up new research teams is used for the right purposes and to have powerful impact on the development of domestic sciences. Meanwhile, there will be a person in charge of daily management, a managing director.

Source: Tien phong