The fact that Professor Ngo Bao Chau has received the gift from the Government – an apartment worth $600,000 – has immediately become a matter of controversy. Some people believe that Professor Ngo Bao Chau is not deserving of the gift, while other believe that the apartment is a reasonable gift.

Different comments have appeared on Professor Ngo Bao Chau’s blog about the of the fact that he received the valuable apartment from the Government. It’s a 160 square metre apartment at the Vincom B high grade apartment building in Hai Ba Trung District in Hanoi.

Professor Ngo Bao Chau, while respecting different opinions by publishing all on them on his blog, has also expressed his own position. On the blog, he wrote: “I personally consider the apartment as a gift for my scientific achievements. Everyone can have their own opinion on whether I deserve it or not.. But I think I do”.

A person whose nickname is Lucio, wrote on Professor Ngo Bao Chau’s blog that the awarding of an apartment to Professor Chau is unfair compared to other scientists’ achievements, such as Professor Hoang Tuy, who set up the foundation for developing Vietnam’s mathematics.

However, Professor Hoang Tuy has voiced his support for Professor Ngo Bao Chau’s decision to receive the apartment.

“I have read the newspapers and I have just realised that people argue about the matter of him receiving the apartment. It is quite normal that the State awards an apartment to a Vietnamese prominent scientist, and it is quite normal that the scientist receives the gift. We need to support this,” Tuy said on Tien phong newspaper.

“I have to repeat that the Fields Medal that Professor Ngo Bao Chau received is a wonderful achievement. This is the most excellent achievement so far in Vietnam’s mathematics. I think that a similar achievement will only come in many more years,” he added.

“I think that the person said the author of the above comments is someone who doesn’t appreciate the achievements of Vietnamese scientists in general and Vietnamese mathematicians in particular. All Vietnamese mathematicians feel very happy about the achievements of Professor Ngo Bao Chau. No one is jealous of Chau. I think we need to stop the argument here,” he said.

“The State has made a right decision to award Chau an apartment and Chau has made a right decision to receive it,” he concluded.
On this occasion, Professor Hoang Tuy has also shared his opinions about the policies to attract talented people. “All of us understand that if we want Vietnam’s sciences to make progress, we need to have policies to attract talents,” he said.

There are many talents at home and Viet Kieu talents as well. However, many talented people still cannot use their ability to the full, while Viet Kieu do not want to return to the homeland.

“We are not lacking talents, and we are not lacking solutions; however, no considerable progress has been made in attracting talents,” Tuy said..

Professor Hoang Tuy was born in 1927 in Quang Nam province

In 1951, he studied at the Science University managed by Le Van Thiem (was one of the most prominent scientists of Vietnam in the 20th century. Together with Hoàng Tụy, he is considered the father of Vietnam Mathematics society. He was the first director of Vietnam Institute of Mathematics and the first Headmaster of Hanoi National University of Education and Hanoi University of Science)

In 1954, he began teaching Mathematics at the Science University which later became the Hanoi National University

In 1959, he received his PhD in mathematics from Moscow State University

In 1961-1968, he was the Dean of the Mathematics Faculty of the Hanoi National University, and the Head of the f the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology from 1980 to 1989

In 1964, he invented the method “Tuy’s cut” which was considered the first milestone in the establishment of a new mathematics branch “global optimization”

In 1997, a workshop in honor of Hoang Tuy was organized at the Linkoping Institute of Technology, Sweden.

In December 2007, an international conference on Nonconvex Programming was held in Rouen, France to pay tribute to him on the occasion of his 80th birthday, in recognition of his pioneering achievements which considerably affected the field of global optimization.

Tuy has 100 scientific works published on prestigious scientific magazines

Source: Tien phong