Lê Văn Thiêm (29 March 1918 – 3 July 1991) was a Vietnamese scientist. Together with

Hoàng Tụy Hoàng Tụy (7 December 1927 – 14 July 2019) was a 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 (HNUE; ) is a public university in Vietnam. Established in 1951 as the fourth university in Vietnam (after Indochina Medical College (1902), University of Indochina (1904), École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts ...

and Hanoi University of Science.

Biography

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

Đức Thọ District There are many widely varying names of Germany in different languages, more so than for any other European nation. For example: * the German language endonym is , from the Old High German , meaning "of the people"; * the French exonym is , ...

Hà Tĩnh Province Hà is a Vietnamese given name, male or female, meaning "river". Hà is a Vietnamese 'surname' (during French colonialism). The name is transliterated as He in Chinese and Ha in Korean. Ha is the anglicized variation of the surname Hà. It is ...

, 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 ( ) 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 was the capital of the former Bình Định province. As of 2022 its population was 481.110. H ...

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 or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

. 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. dissertation successfully in Germany at 1945 and then moved to the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

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

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

placed him among the best researchers in mathematics in the 1940s. He represented Vietnam at the 1948 World Peace Conference in Poland. In 1949, following the call of

Hồ Chí Minh (born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first president of the Democratic Republic ...

, 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; , ĐHQGHN) is a public research university system in Hanoi, Vietnam. The university system has 10 member universities and faculties. VNU is one of two Vietnam's national universities, the other one being ...

). 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 a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

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 languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

) 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 hype ...

in his lectures in Vietnam. Lê Văn Thiêm died in 1991 in

Hồ Chí Minh City Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

, aged 73.

Public recognition

Awards: * The 3rd degree Nation Liberation Decoration * The 2nd degree Labor Decoration * The Order of Independence * Hồ Chí Minh Award A scholarship for Young Vietnamese Mathematics Talents was named after him. The

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

in Scotland created the Lê Văn Thiêm Award in 1989. He was the first Modern Mathematician of Vietnam to have his name used for a street (in

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

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 Academic staff of Hanoi National University of Education People from Hà Tĩnh province Academic staff of Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Biography

Public recognition

Further reading

References

External links