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