Story with 'two-country professor' Nguyen Ngoc Thanh

TP - With a thick Quang Binh accent (old), combined with his rusticity, sincerity, simplicity... if not introduced, it would be difficult to recognize him as a world-leading data scientist; the first Vietnamese to be awarded the title of State Professor in both Poland and Vietnam.

Willpower to overcome difficulties

Born in 1963, growing up in a family where both parents were teachers in Quang Hung commune, Quang Trach district, Quang Binh province (old) and now Quang Trach commune, Quang Tri province, the boy Nguyen Ngoc Thanh inherited his father's talent for math. In 1976, Nguyen Ngoc Thanh passed the entrance exam to the 8th grade of Quang Binh Math Specialized School, studying in Dong Hoi. After nearly 1 year, Binh - Tri - Thien province merged, the Quang Binh Math Specialized Class had 23 students, only 7 students were selected, continuing to study Math at Quoc Hoc Hue, including Nguyen Ngoc Thanh.

Although he was always at the top of his class in terms of academic achievement in Quang Binh, when he entered Quoc Hoc Hue, Nguyen Ngoc Thanh realized that he was weaker than his classmates there. This was a difficult time for the village school student Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, who struggled to catch up with and surpass his classmates. Following his family's tradition, Nguyen Ngoc Thanh took the entrance exam to Hanoi Pedagogical University 1, scored 27 points, and was selected by the State to study Mathematics and Information Technology in Poland in 1980.

“My academic career was once again difficult, when at that time, the concept of information technology in Vietnam had almost not appeared, I had never seen a square or round computer. But luckily, with my inquisitive nature, I was very excited, quickly became the top of the class, graduated 1 year early and received a scholarship from the Polish State to do doctoral research” - Professor, Doctor of Science (GS.TSKH) Nguyen Ngoc Thanh confided.

To become a world-leading scientist in the field of data science as he is today, Professor Nguyen Ngoc Thanh had to work hard, not only with sweat but also with tears. Coming from a poor countryside, living in a foreign land with all kinds of worries, there were times when he had to choose between pursuing his passion for scientific research or making a living.

“In the 90s of the last century, Polish politics was unstable, the economy was very difficult, university lecturers' salaries were very low, so to have an income to cover the minimum living conditions, they had to work part-time. At that time, I was teaching and working part-time, not focusing on one job, so I felt like I couldn't do anything well and was really stuck. After many nights of thinking, I decided to give up science to pursue a living, but luckily, thanks to a saying from my wife, I changed my decision. She said that the best job I could do was scientific research, if I overcame difficulties and pursued it to the end, I would definitely succeed" - Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh recalled.

Professor Nguyen Ngoc Thanh talks with colleagues

Thanks to his partner's understanding and encouragement, he put everything aside to focus on scientific research and became the world's leading scientist in data science. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh is the first Vietnamese person to be awarded the title of State Professor by the President of Poland in 2009, and was also specially awarded the title of Professor by Vietnam in 2011. He currently teaches at Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (Poland) and many famous universities around the world, and is also the Editor-in-Chief of 4 scientific journals.

According to Professor, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, Data Science is the field of analyzing data from social networks, extracting data knowledge and group intelligence.

With nearly 500 outstanding research works, he was awarded the title of “Outstanding Scientist” by the ACM Association (USA). Recently, Professor Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh was awarded the First Class Medal of Merit by Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Painful for homeland

This time, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh visited his hometown during his trip back to Vietnam to sponsor four international conferences for four domestic universities. He said that universities that want to establish their reputation or cooperate internationally need to have international conferences. However, to organize an international conference, many factors are needed, among which the scientific reputation of the sponsor is very important, in order to invite the world's leading scientists to participate.

“My philosophy in life and what I teach my children is to always be ready to give without expecting anything in return. Especially in science, I am ready to give all the knowledge I have. That is why many places ask me to sponsor conferences, but I really cannot accept all of them because I don’t have enough time. My top priority is still my homeland and country first,” confided Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh.

Having been away from home for nearly 50 years, his parents have passed away, but for Professor Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, his homeland is always in his heart. Every time he returns to Vietnam for work, he always tries to visit his homeland. Not only that, every 3 years, he organizes for his whole family to visit his homeland and stay in the level 4 house that his parents left behind. He said that, along with his parents, it is the vegetables, rice grains, water source, and wind of his homeland that gave him his shape, his morality, his determination, and his intelligence to go far in scientific research, as well as in life.

Professor Nguyen Ngoc Thanh talks with the author

Professor Nguyen Ngoc Thanh's wife is from Hung Yen, studied psychology and is currently working at an auditing company in Poland. He and his wife have two sons born in 1990 and 1995. "My family has an unwritten rule that when we come home, we communicate with each other in Vietnamese. Thanks to that, although the two children were born and studied in Poland, their Vietnamese is no worse than that of the locals. They even know the dialect of their hometown Quang Binh. The eldest son is an IT engineer, his wife is also Vietnamese, from Thai Binh (old), and has two children; the second son has a girlfriend who is also Vietnamese. For me, family tradition and hometown tradition are the foundation for us to firmly move forward, so we cannot break them, we cannot forget them" - Professor Nguyen Ngoc Thanh shared.

“I always share with my students that when you get a doctorate, don’t be satisfied, that is just the beginning of a journey of scientific research. On that journey, will, determination, and ability are not enough, but also require perseverance. Don’t give up when faced with difficulties.” Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh

To give back to his homeland, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh not only sought scholarships for excellent students, mobilized the community when his homeland was devastated by natural disasters, but also twice in 2009 and 2018, he proactively brought the Asian Conference on Intelligent Information and Database Systems (ACIIDS), which he founded, to Quang Binh University. “I think it is a very good opportunity to promote the only university in the province. During the two conferences in Quang Binh, I organized for scientists around the world to visit famous tourist destinations in my hometown. Hopefully, through them, Quang Binh and Quang Binh tourism will be known and spread more widely” - Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh shared.

According to Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, Quang Binh (old) and now Quang Tri tourism need a shared database to make it more convenient for tourists to access and use products. At the same time, it is important to invest in digital transformation to develop the socio-economy. He expressed that if the province needs it, with his experience and expertise in this field, he is ready to support it wholeheartedly.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/chuyen-cung-luong-quoc-giao-su-nguyen-ngoc-thanh-post1773387.tpo