Amidst the global surge in artificial intelligence (AI), Ho Pham Minh Nhat is recognized internationally as a young scientist who has made sustained contributions to the mathematical foundations of modern AI.
With over 110 research papers, thousands of citations, and the COPSS Emerging Leader Award 2026, he became the first Vietnamese person to be honored with this prestigious award in the field of statistics and data science.
In early 2026, he became the first Vietnamese person to receive the COPSS Emerging Leader Award – an award given by the Committee of Presidents of the American Statistical Societies to eight young scientists worldwide who have made outstanding contributions to statistics and data science.
Recalling the moment his name was called, he said: “I was moved not by the title, but by seeing the words 'Vietnam' appear for the first time in the list of people who are contributing to shaping the future of data science and AI.”
Professor Ho Pham Minh Nhat works at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.
Currently an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, USA), one of the world's leading research centers in data science and AI, Professor Ho Pham Minh Nhat is considered a well-rounded scientist, connecting pure mathematics, statistics, and modern AI.
Born in 1989 in the former Bac Lieu (now Ca Mau ), Ho Pham Minh Nhat studied specialized mathematics at the High School for the Gifted (Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City) – where he developed a foundation in logical thinking, patience, and a systematic approach to problem-solving.
Afterward, he studied at the University of Science (Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City), then went to the US to pursue a PhD in Statistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor – one of the world's leading centers for statistics training. His postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley in the field of computer science is considered a crucial turning point, helping him expand his research to modern AI models and fundamental questions about algorithm reliability.
It was the intersection of statistics and computer science that shaped his long-term career path.
" I've always viewed mathematics and statistics as the foundational language for understanding AI, not just as computational tools ," Professor Nhat shared.
Over 110 scientific studies decipher the "AI black box".
While much AI research focuses on improving accuracy or optimizing performance, Professor Ho Pham Minh Nhat pursues a more fundamental question: How can humans understand, control, and trust increasingly complex AI systems?
In computer science, deep learning models are often likened to "black boxes"—they can make accurate predictions, but it's difficult to explain why they produce those results.
According to him, if AI is deployed in healthcare, finance, education, or law without accountability, the risk doesn't lie in the model being wrong, but in people not knowing why it's wrong and when it might have serious consequences.
" An AI system is only truly useful when humans can understand and trust it," Professor Nhat said. He explained that if we can't open the "black box," then the smarter the AI becomes, the more uncontrollable the potential risks are.
From 2020 to the present, Professor Nhat has published over 110 papers in leading conferences and journals such as ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, CVPR, AISTATS, JMLR, Annals of Statistics, etc., with an h-index of approximately 36 and nearly 4,100 citations. A consistent research thread throughout his work is the development of methods to make AI models more transparent, stable, and reliable in real-world environments.
Professor Nhat shared this at the Global Vietnamese Youth Knowledge Forum at VinUni University in July 2025.
Professor Ho Pham Minh Nhat's work spans four main pillars of modern AI: interpretive AI, which helps humans understand the reasoning mechanisms of models; reliable AI, focusing on safety, security, and resilience against noise or attacks; generative AI, especially multimodal models combining image and language; and the mathematical foundation for machine learning, including Mixture-of-Experts, Optimal Transport, and probabilistic inference.
According to him, as AI models grow larger, the question is no longer about "running faster" or "predicting more accurately," but rather how to control a system that even its creators find difficult to fully understand.
The aspiration to define Vietnam's technological identity.
Despite working at one of the world's leading AI research centers, Professor Ho Pham Minh Nhat still dedicates much of his efforts to the Vietnamese scientific community. He is the founder of the Gen AI Vietnam community, which brings together over 19,000 members including students, engineers, and researchers both domestically and internationally, with the aim of sharing knowledge and connecting young talents with the international academic environment.
Professor Nhật is guiding a student on how to explain AI models through the lens of a mixed-expert modeling approach.
"If you get ahead a bit, it's naturally your responsibility to turn back and bring others along ," he said, arguing that personal success only truly has meaning when it becomes a bridge for others.
Beyond the academic metrics, he emphasized the role of perseverance, original curiosity, and the ability to accept failure—core elements of scientific research.
When asked about long-term goals, Professor Ho Pham Minh Nhat suggested that Vietnam should not only be a place for technology application, but could also become a shining example of foundational research in AI and data science.
One day, when discussing the foundational theories of reliable AI, people will think of contributions from Vietnam.
"It's not for fame, but because we've contributed to making technology safer and more humane," the professor, born in the 1980s, shared.
Le Thu
Source: https://vtcnews.vn/nguoi-viet-dung-sau-110-cong-trinh-quoc-te-giai-ma-hop-den-ai-ar1002212.html
Comment (0)