Professor Ngo Bao Chau won the Fields math prize

Both the auditorium in Hyderabad, India, bustling with applause when the name of Professor Ngo Bao Chau was voiced was one of four mathematicians who won the Fields today.

Indian President Pratibha Patil awarded the Fields Medal - the world's most noble math prize - to Ngo Bao Chau at 12:55 today (Hanoi time).

Professor Chau received the Fields Medal from Indian President Pratibha Patil.
Photo: muctim.com.vn

Professor Bao Chau is the first mathematician in Vietnam to win this prestigious award. With this event, Vietnam became the second Asian country after Japan to have this award-winning mathematician.

"Ngo gave a bright proof of the 'basic lemma', which is an important part of the mathematical vision that Robert Langlands - working at Princeton, New Jersey Institute of Research, launched in the 1960s." , introduction of the International Mathematical Union with a paragraph."The Langlands program connects all areas of modern mathematics. As its name suggests, the basic lemma is only a technical issue, but it has puzzled many mathematicians for decades. Ngo's breakthrough achievements helped other scientists advance in demonstrating the Langlands Program " .

Ngo Bao Chau's achievements were evaluated by the prestigious Time magazine of the US as one of the 10 most important scientific innovations of 2009.

Fields Medal is an award awarded to a maximum of four mathematicians not exceeding 40 years old at each World Mathematical Congress of the International Mathematical Association (IMU). This conference is held every 4 years. Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields is the founder of the award.

Along with Ngo Bao Chau, three other mathematicians who won Fields this time also included: Elon Lindenstrauss (Israel), Stanislav Smirnov (Russia) and Cedric Villani (France).

The opening ceremony took place this morning in the city of Hyderabad and about 3,000 mathematicians from around the world attended. Sitting in the row of chairs right near the head in the hall with Professor Bao Chau's family. His mother, associate professor Tran Luu Van Hien, was fresh in Vietnamese traditional ao dai. Father - Professor Ngo Huy Can - dignified in a dark suit.

Bao Chau's scientific path

From a math student in Hanoi during difficult years, Professor Ngo Bao Chau became a great mathematician in the world of mathematics.

Professor Chau's name is on the front page of the conference website
world mathematics 2010. Photo: icm2010.org.in

Ngo Bao Chau was born in 1972 in Hanoi. He is the only child of Doctor of Science Dr. Ngo Huy Can of the Institute of Mechanics and Associate Professor Dr. Tran Luu Van Hien, working at the Central Traditional Medicine Hospital. He studied at Giang Vo Experimental School in Hanoi before entering the specialized math school of Hanoi University of Science, now Hanoi National University.

In the summer of 1988, Bao Chau attended the International Mathematical Olympiad exam in Australia and won a gold medal. The following summer he continued to win the gold medal of the International Mathematical Olympiad in Germany. Also in 1989, Chau went to France to study at Paris 6 University. He defended his doctoral thesis when he was 25 years old at the University of Paris - the most prestigious school in France. In 2003, at the age of 31, he completed the habilitation thesis (equivalent to Doctor of Science) at Paris 11 University. Early next year he became professor of this university.

Ngo Bao Chau and his mother and daughters.(Photo: provided by family)

In 1994, Bao Chau married his girlfriend from high school. In 2004, he and his teacher Gerard Laumon - his teacher - received the annual Research Institute of Clay Mathematics Award (USA) for those who achieved the most outstanding results of the year by resolving a special case. of 'Langlands program' . Each year only one to two winners and Chau are the first Vietnamese to receive this award.

After receiving the Clay Prize, Bao Chau was invited by the Institute of Advanced Science at Princeton, USA. This institute is a gathering place for many of the world's leading mathematicians and physicists, many of whom have won Nobel prizes and Fields.

In 2005, at the age of 33, Ngo Bao Chau was specially appointed to be a professor in Vietnam. Currently he is the youngest professor in Vietnam. A year later, he was invited to read the subcommittee report at the World Mathematical Congress in Madrid (Spain). You are the third Vietnamese to have this honor. Before him were two overseas Vietnamese, Professor F. Pham and professor Duong Hong Phong.

After proving the 'Basic Lemma' , a key hypothesis of the Langlands Program, he was awarded the German Oberwolfach Prize, the Prize of the French Academy (in 2007). His work was voted "one of the 10 most outstanding scientific inventions of 2009" by Time America. Last June, his work, 'Le lemme fondamental pour les algèbres de Lie' (the basic lemma for the 169-page Lie algebra) was officially published in Publications magazine Mathématiques de L'IHÉS due to Springer publisher released.

Although studying and teaching mathematics at the world's leading centers, GS. Ngo Bao Chau still takes considerable time to participate in mathematics teaching and training in Vietnam. He participated in guiding research and teaching topics for students at the University of Natural Sciences and Pedagogical University (Hanoi National University).

Professor Ngo Bao Chau will start working at the Mathematics Department of the University of Chicago, USA from September 1, 2010.

Recently, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan officially invited Ngo Bao Chau to return to Vietnam to work and contribute to the program to bring our country into a great power of mathematics.