Prof. Trinh Xuan Thuan: Know what we passion to pursue

Prof. Trinh Xuan Thuan (middle) at the talk with those interested in science on July 8. Photo: Van Luu

The talk entitled “Human beings and the universe: The universe has a meaning or not”. Prof. Trinh Xuan Thuan gave a brief on the history of astrophysics and the formation of the universe. He also shared about his way of success in fundamental science.

Prof. Trinh Xuan Thuan is a Vietnamese-American astrophysicist and he studied for his B.S. at the California Institute of Technology from 1967 to 1970 and at the Princeton University from 1970 to 1974. He completed his Ph.D. at Princeton University. He has taught astronomy at the University of Virginia (USA) and at Paris 7 University, where he is a professor, since 1976.

“One of the important things in my life and science is that I was taught by excellent professors with the issues related to how to research, think and pursue science, etc. I was lucky to have that at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA. The two professors at this institute are Prof. William Alfred Fower (Nobel laureate in physics in 1983) and Prof. Gordon Garmire, who guided me a lot.” Prof. Thuan shared.

The pupils and students at that talk had many questions for Prof. Trinh Xuan Thuan on the issues related to the formation of the universe, the life outside the Earth, the applicability of the astrophysics projects in real life, etc. For young people wanting to pursue scientific research, Prof Thuan said that first we need to know what we passion to pursue, then the will to do that. The Professor emphasized, “When I was young, I had to leave my country, living far from my family. At that time the Earth looked very large, not as it is now so I was rather discouraged. Meanwhile, I did not have much money and could not speak English, but I was still offered a scholarship to America.”

Đ.T (Source: THU HIEN - baobinhdinh.com.vn)