Hoàng Xuân Sính (born September 8, 1933) is a Vietnamese mathematician, a student of Grothendieck, the first female mathematician in Vietnam, the founder of Thang Long University, and the recipient of the ''

Ordre des Palmes Académiques A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/ concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

''.

Early life and career

Hoàng was born in Cót, in the Từ Liêm District of Vietnam, one of seven children of fabric merchant Hoàng Thuc Tan. Her mother died when she was eight years old, and she was raised by a stepmother. She has also frequently been said to be the granddaughter of Vietnamese mathematician Hoàng Xuân Hãn. She completed a bachelor's degree in 1951 in Hanoi, studying English and French, and then traveled to Paris for a second baccalaureate in mathematics. She stayed in France to study for an '' agrégation'' at the

University of Toulouse The University of Toulouse (french: Université de Toulouse) was a university in the French city of Toulouse that was established by papal bull in 1229, making it one of the earliest universities to emerge in Europe. Suppressed during the Frenc ...

, which she completed in 1959, before returning to Vietnam to become a mathematics teacher at the

Hanoi National University of Education Hanoi National University of Education ( Abbreviation: HNUE; vi, Đại học Sư phạm Hà Nội) is a public university in Vietnam. Established in 1951 as the fourth university in Vietnam (after Indochina Medical College (1902), University of ...

. Hoàng became the first female mathematician in Vietnam and at that time was one of a very small number of mathematicians there with a foreign education..

Work with Grothendieck

The French mathematician and pacifist Alexander Grothendieck visited North Vietnam in late 1967, during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

, and spent a month teaching mathematics to the Hanoi University mathematics department staff, including Hoàng, who took the notes for the lectures. Because of the war, Grothendieck's lectures were held away from Hanoi, first in the nearby countryside and later in Đại Từ. After Grothendieck returned to France, he continued to teach Hoàng as a correspondence student.Remembering Alexandre Grothendieck
Thang Long University, November 18, 2014, accessed 2015-07-18. She earned her doctorate under Grothendieck's supervision from

Paris Diderot University Paris Diderot University, also known as Paris 7 (french: Université Paris Diderot), was a French university located in Paris, France. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 universities in 197 ...

in 1975, with a handwritten thesis. Her thesis research, on algebraic structures based on categorical

groups A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

but with a group law that holds only up to isomorphism, prefigured much of the modern theory of

2-group In mathematics, a 2-group, or 2-dimensional higher group, is a certain combination of group and groupoid. The 2-groups are part of a larger hierarchy of ''n''-groups. In some of the literature, 2-groups are also called gr-categories or groupal ...

Later accomplishments

When she was promoted to full professor Hoàng became the first female full professor in Vietnam in any scientific or technical field. In 1988 she founded the first private university in Vietnam, in Hanoi, and became the president of its board of directors..

Recognition

In 2003 she was awarded France's ''

'' for her "contributions to boosting cooperation in culture and science between the two nations" of France and Vietnam..

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoang, Xuan Sinh 1933 births Living people 20th-century Vietnamese mathematicians 20th-century women mathematicians Algebraic geometers People from Hanoi Paris Diderot University alumni Academic staff of Hanoi National University of Education