VietNamNet Bridge – The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) put into operation the world’s largest particle collider (LHC) on September 10. Dr. Vo Van Thuan from the Institute for Nuclear Sciences and Technology said Vietnamese scientists will participate in research activities with LHC.

The core magnet of the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN (photo: Xinhua)

Thuan said no group of Vietnamese scientists has ever directly worked with CERN to do research related to the LHC. However, with the assistance of some institutes and universities in France and Switzerland, some researchers at the Institute for Physics and Electronics and the Physics Faculty of the Hanoi-based National University are putting together research groups in Hanoi to do local research and send researchers to CERN.

According to Thuan, several years ago, a group of scientists led by Professor Nguyen Mong Giao cooperated with the D0 project of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), which is considered to have some relation to CERN’s operations. However, this group, because of financial difficulties, mainly took part in overseas projects rather than did research at home.

Thuan said there are four Vietnamese postgraduates directly participating in CERN’s research of LHC. All four have defended doctoral dissertations in Europe.

They are Dr. Vu Anh Tuan, a post-doctoral researcher at CERN; Dr. Le Duc Ninh, a post-doctoral researcher in a German research group; Nguyen Hai Duong, a postgraduate at Fermilab who is working on a doctoral thesis at CERN; and Nguyen Thi Hong Van, a post-graduate at the Hanoi-based Institute for Physics and Electronics, who is on a short-term business trip to CERN.

Thuan said the Ministry of Science and Technology should provide VND2-4 billion for Vietnamese scientists to work at CERN several months a year.

Mai Linh