Professor Tran Thanh Van and his wife have been promoted to the Legion of Honor.

On July 14th, the ICISE Center (Gia Lai province) announced that Professor Tran Thanh Van (Chairman of the Vietnam Meeting of Scientists Association in France) and his wife Le Kim Ngoc (Chairman of the Association for the Protection of Vietnamese Children in France) were awarded and promoted to the Legion of Honor, officer rank, by a decree signed by the President of France.

Professor Tran Thanh Van and his wife, Le Kim Ngoc. Photo: ICISE

This is the highest award of the French State, recognizing the outstanding and sustained contributions over decades of two professors of Vietnamese origin in the fields of science and humanitarian activities. The official award ceremony took place on the occasion of the French National Day (July 14).

Professor Tran Thanh Van, originally from Dong Hoi ( Quang Binh province; now part of Quang Tri province), is a world-renowned theoretical physicist. He is the founder of a series of international scientific and physics conferences and meetings such as the Moriond Meeting, the Blois Meeting, and especially the Vietnam Meeting series, which has been running for the past 32 years.

In 2000, Professor Tran Thanh Van was awarded the Knight's Legion of Honor by the President of France for the first time. In 2012, he was one of three Asians to receive the Tate Medal from the American Physical Society, honoring physicists who have made outstanding contributions to promoting international scientific cooperation, particularly in the field of physics.

Professor Le Kim Ngoc (from Vinh Long province) is an outstanding female scientist, the first in the world to introduce the concept of "thin cell slicing" in plant biotechnology. She was personally awarded the Legion of Honor, Knight class, by French President François Hollande in 2016 in Ho Chi Minh City.

Professor Tran Thanh Van and his wife's ICISE center welcomed 18 Nobel Prize-winning professors.

Since 2008, Professor Tran Thanh Van and his wife returned to Vietnam to initiate the ICISE project in Quy Nhon (now part of Gia Lai province). After more than a decade, ICISE has welcomed over 16,500 scientists from more than 60 countries, including 18 Nobel laureates, becoming a symbol of connecting knowledge and the humanistic values ​​of science.

Besides ICISE, the two professors' contributions are also evident in activities such as organizing the Vietnam Meeting, the Vallet Scholarship Fund, supporting SOS Children's Villages, and promoting the education of young generations.

NGOC OAI

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/vo-chong-gs-tran-thanh-van-duoc-thang-hang-huan-chuong-bac-dau-boi-tinh-post803697.html