Vietnamese-American NASA expert becomes visiting professor in Ho Chi Minh City

(Dan Tri) - A Vietnamese-American scientist working at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the first Vietnamese to plant the national flag in Antarctica, has joined as a visiting professor at Ho Chi Minh City National University.

Ho Chi Minh City National University has just approved a list of 6 qualified candidates to participate in the 4th Visiting Professor Program in 2025.

The visiting professors this time come from the United States, Denmark, Canada and the Czech Republic, with expertise spanning a wide range of fields such as astrophysics, electronics and telecommunications, information technology and artificial intelligence, chemical engineering, advanced materials science and social anthropology.

Notably, many experts are working at leading research organizations and universities such as the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), IBM Research, the University of Texas in the United States; Queen's University (Canada), Palacký University Olomouc (Czech Republic), and Aalborg University, Denmark.

Dr. Nguyen Trong Hien, an expert from NASA, is a visiting lecturer at a domestic university (Photo: TL).

Notably, among the candidates qualified to be visiting professors at Ho Chi Minh City National University this time is Dr. Nguyen Trong Hien, an astrophysicist from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Dr. Nguyen Trong Hien will cooperate with the University of Technology and the University of Science.

Dr. Nguyen Trong Hien was born in 1963 in Da Nang . In 1981, after graduating from high school, he immigrated to the US when he was just 18 years old. In the US, he studied Physics at the University of California at Berkeley.

After graduating, he continued his studies and received his PhD from Princeton University, specializing in cosmic background radiation research.

During his doctoral thesis at Princeton, Mr. Nguyen Trong Hien went to the South Pole to study cosmic background radiation and became the first Vietnamese scientist to set foot in the South Pole and also the first Vietnamese scientist to receive a doctorate from Princeton University.

Dr. Nguyen Trong Hien is also a postdoctoral researcher specializing in Astrophysics at the University of Chicago.

In 1993, Dr. Nguyen Trong Hien also sewed the Vietnamese flag and planted it at Welcome Point in Antarctica, next to the flags of many other countries.

Dr. Nguyen Trong Hien worked as a special lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University, then moved to work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

In particular, Dr. Nguyen Trong Hien is also one of three Vietnamese scientists who founded the Astrophysics Research Group (SAGI) with the goal of contributing to the development of astrophysics in Vietnam.

For a long time, Dr. Hien has shared his desire to return to Vietnam to teach students as well as conduct scientific research in his home country. Before Ho Chi Minh City National University, he was invited to return to Vietnam to teach the Advanced Physics program at Hue University of Education.

The Visiting Professor Program at Ho Chi Minh City National University aims to attract and cooperate with leading experts and scientists in the world. Professors are appointed on a part-time basis, participating in teaching, research and supporting academic development at member and affiliated units.

To date, Ho Chi Minh City National University has invited and appointed a total of 55 international visiting professors in four batches, from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Denmark and the Czech Republic.

The program aims to appoint 100 visiting professors in the 2025-2030 period.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/chuyen-gia-nasa-goc-viet-lam-giao-su-thinh-giang-tai-tphcm-20251009140852259.htm