Professor Doan Quynh is a pure intellectual; no matter what moment we meet him, we can see the character of an intellectual. He belongs to the very few exceptions to the “law of large numbers” where each person plays many roles (William Shakespeare) and a drop of blood is often tested: a little intellectual - a little farmer - a little … (Nguyen Duy).

Professor Doan Quynh was born on August 27, 1933 into an intellectual family. His personality was first and foremost shaped by family tradition. His mother, Dang Thi Hieu (Ninette Jean), was a beautiful and intelligent student at Dong Khanh School, Hue. Beautiful in appearance and character, but Dang Thi Hieu died early, at the age of 35.

Doan Quynh's father, Mr. Doan Nong, was a Western-educated intellectual. After the August Revolution, from 1946 to 1954, teacher Doan Nong was the Principal of Lam Son School (Thanh Hoa). After peace was restored, Mr. Doan Nong went to Hanoi to work as Vice Principal of Chu Van An School, then went to Hanoi Pedagogical University to teach French and retired in 1968.

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Professor Doan Quynh translated a 1967 lecture by the great mathematician Grothendieck.

Graduated from the first course, Mathematics department, Hanoi National University of Education in 1956, Doan Quynh was retained as a lecturer and in 1961 was sent to study at Lomonosov University (Soviet Union). He belonged to the first generation of intellectuals to receive formal university training under the socialist education system. At Lomonosov, he studied under the guidance of Professor Rashevsky, head of the Department of Differential Geometry.

His major research result during this early period was published in 1968 in a 60-page paper entitled Poincaré polynomials of compact homogeneous Riemann spaces with irreducible stationary groups - contributing to the classification of Lie groups, a work that was still cited many years later.

He and other math lecturers of the same age entered the most enthusiastic stage of their careers when the war against America was fierce and the country was facing difficulties in all aspects, but above all, their academic activities were still carried out seriously.

In 1967, amidst the bombs and bullets of war, the great mathematician of the 20th century, Grothendieck, made a trip to the North of our country. During his 21 days in Vietnam, Grothendieck gave a series of lectures on the fundamental problems of modern mathematics. Doan Quynh, one of the most talented mathematicians among the participants, was chosen to be Grothendieck's interpreter.

The trip left a deep impression on Gorthendieck and led to the Theorem of the Existence of Vietnamese Mathematics . The proof of this theorem was presented by Grothendieck in an article (English version).

The Grothendieck event has entered the history of Vietnamese mathematics as a legendary page. His article leaves us a beautiful picture, including the image of Doan Quynh, of the academic activities of Vietnamese mathematicians during the most difficult years of the nation.

Professor Doan Quynh is an erudite intellectual, knowledgeable in many fields of mathematics and mathematics education. His good foreign language skills (French, English, Russian) have helped him to study widely, know a lot, and achieve high culture. On the podium, through books, in exchanges and discussions, Doan Quynh has the attraction of sophistication and depth. He is the first address that many students and colleagues trust to seek guidance, advice, and discussion for concerns related to understanding mathematics or mathematics education.

Professor Doan Quynh is a person who works a lot, works hard and works for real. He is one of the few Vietnamese mathematicians who has extremely rich and persistent professional and technical activities, participating deeply in many aspects of all aspects: Research, training, popularizing mathematics, from the general to the talented, from the general to the advanced level.

He was the head of the Geometry Department of the Faculty of Mathematics, Hanoi National University of Education from 1967 until his retirement in 2003. The Department's seminar under his chairmanship has been operating seriously and regularly since the 1970s, aiming to continuously improve the qualifications of members of the department and train young mathematicians. Issues on Total Differential Geometry, Grassman Manifolds, Closed Geodesics, Differential Topology, Hyperbolic Complex Geometry, Algebraic Geometry, Value Distribution Theory, etc. have been presented in this seminar.

He was a serious and exemplary person in his work, thoughtful and tactful in his life, and was respected and admired by everyone. He had a great and lasting influence on the subject in many aspects, especially in the spirit of taking academics as the most important, being strict and careful in academics.

Starting in 1979 and maintained for several years thereafter, the Geometry - Topology - Algebra Seminar, a joint seminar between the Institute of Mathematics, the University of General Sciences, and the University of Education, chaired by him and professors Nguyen Dinh Ngoc, Hoang Xuan Sinh, and Huynh Mui, promoted mathematical research by many individuals in the Vietnamese mathematical community. Many young doctors who participated in the seminar at that time later became famous Vietnamese mathematicians such as Ngo Viet Trung, Do Ngoc Diep, Nguyen Huu Viet Hung, Ha Huy Vui, Nguyen Tu Cuong, etc.

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Professor Doan Quynh is a great educator and personality.

In the 70s and 80s of the last century, the selection of PhD students to study abroad was assigned to the Ministry of Universities and Vocational High Schools. Candidates majoring in Mathematics had to take three exams: Analysis and Linear Algebra, a major subject, and an advanced subject. Professor Doan Quynh was assigned by the Ministry for many years to be in charge of creating questions and grading the Linear Algebra section.

Not only did he make great contributions to the training of mathematicians, he also devoted much of his time to training students with mathematical talents. For many years, he participated in selecting and leading the Vietnamese student team to participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad. Many students in the math team at that time have now become famous mathematicians such as Ngo Bao Chau, Dinh Tien Cuong, and Nguyen Tien Dung.

Professor Ngo Bao Chau still remembers that the first advanced mathematics book he got was from Professor Doan Quynh - the book that helped the international math champion student quickly realize the many differences between learning advanced mathematics and learning elementary mathematics. Doan Quynh is also the editor-in-chief of a series of textbooks and many reference books for training high school math students.

Over the past forty years, he has made a particularly great contribution to general education in mathematics. He was the Chairman of the Mathematics Council of the Ministry of Education and Training from 1992 to 2008, and in each period, he was the Editor-in-Chief of Geometry Textbooks for High School, Editor-in-Chief of Mathematics Program for High School, and Editor-in-Chief of Mathematics Textbooks for High School (Advanced Set). Until the last years of his life, at the age of over 90, he was still the Chairman of the Mathematics Textbook Appraisal Council for Middle School (according to the new program).

It is fortunate for Vietnamese education that such important tasks were entrusted by the education leaders of that time to a highly cultured person with great personality, dedication and responsibility like him!

As a leading professor at a leading university in the country, Doan Quynh left behind many carefully compiled geometry textbooks that were highly appreciated. He was also the editor-in-chief of a mathematics dictionary and a number of popular mathematics books. With his great contributions to the education sector, he was awarded the title of Professor by the State in 1984 and the title of People's Teacher and the Labor Medal.

Professor Doan Quynh was a quiet, courageous but humble person. His reputation and position were built on his contributions, talent, ethics, personality and work ethic. Professor Doan Quynh left this world at 2:25 p.m. on November 12. The funeral will be held at the National Funeral Home, 5 Tran Thanh Tong, Hanoi, at 11:45 a.m. on November 13. The last thing he said to us was: "Please let me say hello to everyone!"

Talents go, vitality stays!

Prof. Dr. Tran Van Tan (Head of Geometry Department, Hanoi National University of Education) and Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Doan Tuan (Former Deputy Head of Geometry Department, Hanoi National University of Education)

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