Lê Văn Thiêm (29 March 1918 – 3 July 1991) was a

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

ese scientist. Together with

Hoàng Tụy Hoàng Tụy (7 December 1927 – 14 July 2019) was an prominent Vietnamese applied mathematician. He was considered one of two founders of the mathematical institutions of Vietnam; the other was Lê Văn Thiêm. Career Hoàng Tụy's early car ...

, he is considered the father of Vietnam Mathematics society. He was the first director of the Vietnam Institute of Mathematics, and the first Headmaster of

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 ...

and Hanoi University of Science.

Biography

Lê Văn Thiêm was born in 1918 at Trung Lễ Commune,

Đức Thọ District Because of Germany's long history before 1871 as a non-united region of distinct tribes and states, there are many widely varying names of Germany in different languages, more so than for any other European nation. For example, in the German ...

Hà Tĩnh Province Hà is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as He in Chinese and Ha in Korean. Ha is the anglicized variation of the surname Hà. It is also the anglicized variation of Hạ. Notable people with the surname Hà *Hà Kiều Anh, Mis ...

, to an intellectual family. He was the youngest of 13 brothers and sisters. After the death of his parents in 1930, he moved to live with his older brother in

Quy Nhơn Quy Nhon ( vi, Quy Nhơn ) is a coastal city in Bình Định province in central Vietnam. It is composed of 16 wards and five communes with a total of . Quy Nhon is the capital of Bình Định province. As of 2019 its population was 457,400. His ...

and attended the Collège de Quy Nhơn, where Thiêm stood out in science and mathematics. Within four years, he had completed the 9-year education (equivalent to K-12 system of the US) and went to University of Indochina for his higher education. Because of the humble scale of the university at that moment, no Math course was offered. Therefore, he enrolled in the PCB (Physics-Chemistry-Biology) class. In 1939, after passing the final term examination excellently, Thiêm was offered a scholarship to study at

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

. His education was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War, and only continues in 1941. He graduated with bachelor's degree of Mathematics within a year, rather than the conventional 3-year time. Under the direction of Professor Georges Valiron, he defended his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

dissertation successfully in Germany at 1945 and then moved to the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

where he met and worked with Rolf Herman Nevanlinna for some years.His contributions in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and Zurich placed him among the best researchers in mathematics in the 1940s. In 1949, following the call of

Hồ Chí Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), ('Father of the Nation, Old father of the people') and by other Pseudonym, aliases, was a Vietnamese people, Vietnam ...

, Thiêm returned to Vietnam to support the war of decolonizing Vietnam. Moving through many positions in North Vietnam's science institutions and government, in the mid-1950s he was appointed headmaster of the National University of Advanced Education and School of Basic Science (now the

and the Hanoi University of Science,

Vietnam National University, Hanoi Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU; vi, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội, ĐHQGHN) is a public research university in Vietnam. The university has 10 member colleges (called "universities") and faculties. VNU is one of two Vietnam's nationa ...

). In the 1960s, he was one of the scientists who suggested opening two national high schools ( Hanoi National University of Education High school and Hanoi University of Science) to foster Vietnamese

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

talents. In 1970 he became the first director of the Vietnam Institute of Mathematics. Later, he founded and was first editor-in-chief of two of Vietnam's Mathematical Journals: ''Acta Mathematica Vietnamica'' (in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

) and ''Vietnam Journal of Mathematics'' (in English). He was the host of

Neal Koblitz Neal I. Koblitz (born December 24, 1948) is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington. He is also an adjunct professor with the Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research at the University of Waterloo. He is the creator of hyp ...

in his lectures in Vietnam.; "When Lê Văn Thiêm returned to Hanoi, he used his car and driver to take us around town for one day. He and Khoái went with us first to Văn Miếu (Temple of Literature), founded in 1076. The remains of the ancient university feature an array of 82 large stone slabs, each containing a list of winners in the royal examinations..." Lê Văn Thiêm died in 1991 in

Hồ Chí Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

, aged 73.

Public recognition

Awards: * The 3rd degree Nation Liberation Decoration * The 2nd degree Labor Decoration * The 1st degree Independence Decoration * Hồ Chí Minh Award A scholarship for Young Vietnamese Mathematics Talents was named after him. He was the first Modern Mathematician of Vietnam to have his name used for a street (in

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

References

External links

Lê Văn Thiêm - The pride of Vietnam's Mathematics Society

The article about Lê Văn Thiêm on Vietnam Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Le, Van Thiem 1918 births 1991 deaths 20th-century Vietnamese mathematicians Hanoi National University of Education faculty People from Hà Tĩnh province Vietnam National University, Hanoi faculty

Biography

Public recognition

Further reading

References

External links